Cognitive Approach: Schema Theory

Question 1

What is Schema theory?

Answer 1

• Schema theory is based on the idea that we are active processors of information and that our behaviour and cognitive processes can be influenced by our schema
• A schema is a mental representation of the world
• The way we process information and act is determined by relevant previous knowledge (schemas)
• Schemas are constructed through personal experience and taught beliefs
• They are fairly stable, resistant to change => helps us exhibit consistent behavior

Question 2

Bartlett (1932) can be used for…

Answer 2

schema theory

Question 3

Bartlett (1932) - Aim

Answer 3

To investigate whether people’s memory for a story is affected by previous knowledge (schemas) and the extent to which memory is reconstructive

Question 4

Bartlett (1932) - Procedure

Answer 4

• English participants were asked to read a Native American folk tale (The War of the Ghosts)
• The story was filled with unknown names and concepts, and the manner in which the story was developed was also foreign to them
• Participants were allocated to 2 conditions:
  1. Repeated reproduction: participants heard the story and were told to reproduce it after a short time and then to do so again repeatedly over a period of days, weeks, months, or years
  2. Serial reproduction: they had to recall the story and repeat it to another person

Question 5

Bartlett (1932) - Findings

Answer 5

• No significant difference between the way that the groups recalled the story
• Memory distortions were introduced in the recollection of the story
• 3 patterns of distortion:
  1. Assimilation: the story became more consistent with the participants’ own cultural expectations (e.g. hunting seals became fishing, canoe became boat…)
  2. Leveling: story became shorter with each retelling as participants omitted information that was seen as insignificant
  3. Sharpening: participants tended to change the order of the story in order to make sense of it using terms more familiar to the culture of the participants - also added details and/or emotions
• Participants overall remembered the main themes in the story but changed the unfamiliar elements to match their own cultural expectations

Question 6

Bartlett (1932) - Conclusion

Answer 6

• More complex info => higher chance of distortion
• People use existing schemas to subconsciously fill in gaps in memory
• According to Bartlett, memory is an imaginative reconstruction of experience
• New information is strongly influenced by activated schemas