Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Role of schemas
- Schemas are knowledge packages which are built up
through experience of the world. Schemas enable us to
make sense of familiar situations and interpret new
information.
- How might schemas lead to
reconstructive memory? (Cohen, 1993)
- Ignoring aspects that do not fit with
currently activated schema
- Storing central features
rather than the exact
details
- Filling in missing
information to make sense
of event
- Distorting memories to fit in
with prior expectations
- Use as basis for correct
guesses
- BREWER & TREYENS,
1981
- AIMS
- To investigate the effects
of schemas on visual
memory
- PROCEDURE
- 30 PPs were told to wait in a
room designed to look like an
office
- Office room contained some typical office
items but also items that were incompatible
with an office schema, e.g. brick
- Unexpected recall test
- FINDINGS
- PPs were more successful
recalling items with high schema
expectancy (the typical office
items)
- Less successful recalling
incompatible items
- Some PPs were able to recall the incompatible items
- PPs made substitution errors - recalling items that
would have high schema expectancy but were not
actually present
- PPs made errors involving
wrong placement of items
- CONCLUSION
- People tend to 'remember' what is
consistent with their schemas and filter out
what is inconsistent (even if it was actually
present)
- People use their schemas to ensure
rapid encoding of visual information
- Schema influences recall
- EVALUATION OF THE
ROLE OF SCHEMAS
- Schemas also affect our ability
to store information
- Bransford & Johnson (1972)
- Constructed passages that would be
difficult to understand without context
- One group was given the contextual
information whereas another group did
not receive this information
- Compared recall performance between
the two groups
- Found that recall was significantly better
for the group given the schema compared
to the group without it
- A schema is a vague concept
- Schema theory offers no explanation
as to how schemas are acquired in
the first place
- Using schemas to make sense of new
information can lead to reconstructing
memory for events
- This may account for instances of inaccurate EWT