Schema Theory

War of the ghostsOne night two young men from Egulac went down to the

river to hunt seals and while they were there it

became foggy and calm. Then they heard war-cries, and they thought: "Maybe this is a war-party". They

escaped to the shore, and hid behind a log. Now canoes came up, and they heard the noise of paddles, and

saw one canoe coming up to them. There were five men in the canoe, and they said:

"What do you think? We wish to take you along. We are going up the river to make war on the people."

War of the ghostsOne of the young men said,"I have no arrows."

"Arrows are in the canoe," they said.

I will not go along. I might be killed. My relatives do not know where I have gone. But you," he said,

turning to the other, "may go with them."

So one of the young men went, but the other returned home.

And the warriors went on up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama. The people came down to

the water and they began to fight, and many were killed. But presently the young man heard one of the …

War of the ghosts

… warriors say, "Quick, let us go home: that Indian has been hit." Now he thought: "Oh, they are ghosts.“

He did not feel sick, but they said he had been shot.

So the canoes went back to Egulac and the young man went ashore to his house and made a fire. And he

told everybody and said: "Behold I accompanied the ghosts, and we went to fight. Many of our fellows

were killed, and many of those who attacked us were killed. They said I was hit, and I did not feel sick."

War of the ghosts

He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose he fell down. Something black came out of his

mouth. His face became contorted. The people jumped up and cried.

He was dead.

Bartlett (1932)Participants heard an unfamiliar North American folk tale

Afterwards, they were asked to retell the story many times

The recalled story was distorted in a number of ways; specifically alterations and omissions, changes in length and words

The retelling of the story was influenced by the participants’ personal cultural background

Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies

What is schema theory ?

Learning Outcomes (from AP Syllabus)

What is schema theory?

The term schema was first used by Jean Piaget in 1926. (but there have been many with similar ideas before him)

Explains how people develop ideas from simple ideas into complex ones

Schemas are formed and revised by relating experiences to each other

The construction of schemas according to

Jean PiagetWe try to understand a new or different object or concept by using one of our pre-existing schemas

During assimilation, we try to fit new objects into existing schemas (a type of recognition, it provides us with comfort and security)

During accommodation, we change our schemas to fit the characteristics of a new object (learning)

Schema activity

1. A child sees a chihuahua for the first time and incorporates it into his schema of a dog. Is this an example of assimilation or accommodation?

2. A child calls a cat a dog because it has four legs but is corrected. Is this an example of assimilation or accommodation?

Schema Theory What is a Schema?

“A mental model or representation built up through experience about a person, an object, a situation, or

an event.” (Head, 1920)

“Organized structures of knowledge and expectations of

some aspect of the world.” (Bartlett, 1932)

Schema of an “egg”

What is a schema ?Schema theory seeks to explain our interpretation of the world from a psychological perspective, which stems from cognitive science.

Schemas (or schemata) are cognitive structures (mental templates or frames) that represent a person's knowledge about objects, people or situations.

Schemas are derived from prior experience and knowledge. They simplify reality, setting up expectations about what is probable in relation to particular social and textual contexts.

What is a schema ?Schemas are used to organize our knowledge, to assist recall, to guide our behavior, to predict likely happenings and to help us to make sense of current experiences.

Schema theory predicts that we interpret our experiences by using relevant social and textual schemas. Bartlett (1932) described how schemata influence memory in his research with 'Story of the ghosts'.

A schema can be seen as a kind of framework with 'slots' for 'variables', some of them filled-in and others empty.

What is a schema ?Schema theory predicts that we interpret our experiences The slots are either filled in already with compulsory values (e.g. that a dog is an animal) or 'default values' (e.g. that a dog has four legs) or are empty (optional variables) until ' instantiated' with values from the current situation (e.g. that the dog's colour is black).

When what seems like the most appropriate schema is activated, inferences are generated to fill in any necessary but inexplicit details with assumed values from the schema.

If no relevant schema is retrieved from long-term memory a new schema is created. Explicit events and inferences, as well as new schemas, are stored in long-tern memory.

Schema-driven processing is a top-down perceptual process that guides a selective search for data relevant to the expectations set up by the schema.

Schema-driven processing interacts with bottom-up data-driven processes (which may lead to the activation, modification or generation of a schema).

Schema theory is consistent with the notion of both perception and recall as constructive and selective cognitive processes.

Schemas are culturally specific: schemas for common routines vary socio-culturally- even within a single country.

General comment on schema theory

Finally, one of the main problems of the schema theory is that it is often very difficult to define what a schema is.

Cohen (1993) points out that "the whole idea of a schema is too vague to be useful' and argues that schema theory provides no explanation of how schemas work.

Schemas are untestable

Schema processing is not fully understood

General comment on schema theory

Nevertheless, there is enough research to suggest schemas do affect memory processes & knowledge, both in a positive and negative sense.

They do simplify reality, and help us to make sense of current experiences. Schemas are useful concepts in helping us understand how we organize our knowledge.

Write down as many items as you can remember

What did you remember?

Chair?:

Desk?:

Skull?

Wine bottle?

Coffee pot?

Wine basket?

Books?

Chair?: 9

Desk?: 9

Skull? 6

Wine bottle? 3

Coffee pot? 2

Wine basket? 1

Books? 2