IB Docs (2) Team
Checking for understanding: Schema theory
The following worksheet checks your understanding of schema theory. Try to answer the questions first before checking the answers that are provided in the "hidden boxes."
Checking for understanding
1. What is a schema?
A mental representation based on prior experience that helps us to understand, communicate about, and predict the world around us.
2. According to Piaget, how do schema play a role in learning?
According to Piaget, schema play a role in learning by either accommodating information - in which old information is replaced with new information - or by assimilation, in which schema are made richer by adding more information to an existing schema.
3. What did Brewer & Treyens find in their study of schema?
They found that when we recall information we rely on schema. Things that are consistent with schema that we already have are more likely to be remembered. Those things that are not consistent with our schema are more likely to be forgotten. In their study, when people recalled the office, they activated their office schema. The items that they remembered were typical of offices and thus remembered.
4. What did Anderson & Pitchert find in their study of schema?
Anderson and Pitchert found that when we use a schema to recall, we are limited by that schema. Those participants who switched schema from burglar to homebuyer were able to recall more information than those who only used the burglar schema, in spite of hearing the story again.
5. What does schema theory explain that Atkinson & Schiffrin’s Multi-store Model does not?
Schema theory helps to explain why memories are distorted. As seen in Bartlett's classic study, those things that are not part of our schema are forgotten (leveled); those things that are congruent with our schema are recalled and sometimes even exaggerated (sharpening); and those things that are different from our expectations set by schema are changed to match our schema - for example, when hearing a story about a pilot, I may remember that the female pilot was actually male because I have a schema that pilots are male.
6. My sister has a story that she remembers. When we were in New Jersey on holiday, we went to Sea World. There, my five-year-old sister saw a dolphin show. The dolphins came up out of the water and frightened her. She was so upset, my father had to remove her from the audience. On that same trip, she slipped while running near the hotel pool and fell into the water. My father had to dive in to save her. My sister's memory is that she fell into the pool with dolphins. How can schema theory be used to explain this?
This is what we call confabulation. When she accesses her schema of the dolphins, she also accesses the schema of falling into the water. The fear of both situations is connected and so she activates both schema, resulting in a false memory that combines both events.
7. According to Bransford and Johnson (1972), what role may schema play in memory?
When Bransford and Johnson gave people the title of a text before reading it to them. When they did that, people were able to recall more of the information - which was about doing the laundry - than those that did not have the context before hearing the piece. Bransford and Johnson argue that by "activating the schema" by providing the context, it made both understanding and retrieval of information easier.
8. What does the Multi-Store Model explain that schema theory does not?
The Multi-Store Model attempts to explain how memories are created. The model argues that through rehearsal, information is transferred from STM to LTM. This has been backed up by biological evidence - for example, long-term potentiation. Schema theory, however, does not explain how schema are actually created, simply that they are. There is also very limited biological support for this theory.
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