Cognitive Processes
- Evaluate schema theory with reference to research studies.
- Frederic Barlett- British psychologist who coined the term Schema
- Schema- mental representation of knowledge
- Barlett research- He was always interested in how cultural schemas influence remembering. He found out that people had problems about remembering a story from other cultures, so he reconstructed the story to fit in with their own cultural schemas. He demonstrated that memory is not like a tape recorder, but it’s what people remember in terms of meaning and what makes sense to them.
- This is why memory is subject of distortions, according to Barlett, who showed how the principle could be investigated scientifically.
- Pre-stored expected mental representation is called cognitive schema. E.g when you predict what will happen to the book characters and when you expect that good and bad characters won’t fare the same.
- Memory researchers believe that what we already know affects the way we interpret events and store knowledge in our memory.
- “How-to-score knowledge”- is schema or schema theory, which is a cognitive theory about information processing.
- Cognitive schema- can be defined as networks of knowledge, beliefs and expectations about particular aspects of the world.
- Schemas can describe how specific knowledge is organized and stored in memory so that it can be accessed and used when it is needed.
- E.g: Office schema- when we are thinking about office, we connect and think about every aspect for e.g: desk, computer, telephone, chair, papers and etc.
- Schema theory and memory processes:
- Encoding- transforming sensory information into a meaningful memory.
- Storage- creating a biological trace of the encoded information in memory, which is either consolidated or lost.
- Retrieval: using the stored information.
Evaluation of schema theory
Strengths: useful for understanding how people categorize information, interpret stories, make inferences. It has contributed to an understanding of memory distortions as well as social cognition.
Limitations: It’s not entirely clear how schemas are acquired in the first place and how they actually influence cognitive processes.
Criticism: Cohen (1993) has criticized schema theory, saying that the concept of schemas is too vague to be useful. Daniel Gilbert US psychologist has aid that the brain is a wonderful magician but a lousy scientist- the brain searches for meaningful patterns but does not check whether they are correct.
Schema Theory Study
Name: Schema theory
Researcher: Anderson and Pichert
Date: 1978
Definition: Schema theory is a cognitive theory about information processing.
Aim: The aim of the experiment was to investigate if schema processing influences both encoding and retrieval.
Method: The participants were given one schema at the encoding stage, to see if the last schema influenced them when they had to recall the information. The participants heard a story and were asked to read the story from the point of view of an either house-buyer or from the point of view of the burglar. After 12 minutes of distracting tasks their recall was tested. After 5 minutes, half of the participants were given a different schema to recall, and the other half retained their original schema, and they were asked to take a second trial of testing.
Results: The researchers found that participants in the changed schema group recalled 7 per cent more points on the second recall test compared to the first trial. Recall of points that were directly linked to the new schema increased by 10 per cent, whereas recall of points that ere important to the previous schema declined. The group that retained their first schema remembered fewer ideas at the second trial.
Conclusion: The results of the experiment indicate that schema processing must have some effect at retrieval as well as at encoding, because the new schema could only have influenced recall at the retrieval stage. The research also showed that people encoded information which was irrelevant to their prevailing schema, since those who had the buyer schema at encoding were able to recall burglar information when the schema was changed, and vice versa.
Name: Schema theory
Researcher: Anderson and Pichert
Date: 1978
Definition: Schema theory is a cognitive theory about information processing.
Aim: The aim of the experiment was to investigate if schema processing influences both encoding and retrieval.
Method: The participants were given one schema at the encoding stage, to see if the last schema influenced them when they had to recall the information. The participants heard a story and were asked to read the story from the point of view of an either house-buyer or from the point of view of the burglar. After 12 minutes of distracting tasks their recall was tested. After 5 minutes, half of the participants were given a different schema to recall, and the other half retained their original schema, and they were asked to take a second trial of testing.
Results: The researchers found that participants in the changed schema group recalled 7 per cent more points on the second recall test compared to the first trial. Recall of points that were directly linked to the new schema increased by 10 per cent, whereas recall of points that ere important to the previous schema declined. The group that retained their first schema remembered fewer ideas at the second trial.
Conclusion: The results of the experiment indicate that schema processing must have some effect at retrieval as well as at encoding, because the new schema could only have influenced recall at the retrieval stage. The research also showed that people encoded information which was irrelevant to their prevailing schema, since those who had the buyer schema at encoding were able to recall burglar information when the schema was changed, and vice versa.
- Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process (for example, memory, perception, language, decision-making) with reference to research studies.
Name: The Multistore Memory Model
Researcher: Atkinson and Shiffrin Date: 1968 Definition: The researchers suggest that memory is made up of a series of stores (see below). This model describes memory in terms of the information flowing through a system. This information is firstly detected by the sense organs and enters the sensory memory. If attended to this information enters the short term memory. Information from the STM is transferred to the long-term memory only if that information is rehearsed. If rehearsal does not occur, then information is forgotten, lost from short term memory through the processes of displacement or decay.
Evaluation:
The strengths of the model are;
The weaknesses of the model are;
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Name: The Working Memory Model
Researcher: Baddeley and Hitch Date: Hitch Definition: The researcher proposed an alternative to the Multistore Models Short Term Memory claiming it was too simplified. Instead of all information going into a single store, there are different stores for different types of information. The Memory Model has three main components;
- Articulatory control process (inner voice): Linked to speech production Evaluation:
The strength of the model are;
The weaknesses of the model are;
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- Explain how biological factors may affect one cognitive process (for example, Alzheimer’s disease, brain damage, sleep deprivation).
Clive Wearing – how brain damage affects memory processing.
Neuroscientists distinguish between two key types of amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is the failure to store memories after a trauma. Retrograde amnesia is the failure to recall memories that have been stored before a trauma. Amnesia can be cause by brain injury or infection. In the case of prolonged misuse of alcohol, a special kind of amnesia called Korsakoff’s syndrome may result.
Clive Wearing suffers from the most extensive amnesia ever; he suffers from both anterograde and retrograde amnesia. MRI scanning of Clive Wearing’s brain shows damage to the hippocampus and some of the frontal regions. This indicates that retrograde amnesia could be explained as “trauma that disrupts consolidation of memory”. Wearing’s episodic memory and some of his sematic memory are lost. He cannot transfer new information into long-term memory either.
Wearing can still play the piano and conduct the music that he knew before his illness. These skills are part of implicit memory. The face that he can do this is evidence of a disturbed memory system, since implicit memory is linked to a brain structure other than the hippocampus. His emotional memory is also intact, which is clearly demonstrated in the affection he constantly shows for his wife.
Neuroscientists distinguish between two key types of amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is the failure to store memories after a trauma. Retrograde amnesia is the failure to recall memories that have been stored before a trauma. Amnesia can be cause by brain injury or infection. In the case of prolonged misuse of alcohol, a special kind of amnesia called Korsakoff’s syndrome may result.
Clive Wearing suffers from the most extensive amnesia ever; he suffers from both anterograde and retrograde amnesia. MRI scanning of Clive Wearing’s brain shows damage to the hippocampus and some of the frontal regions. This indicates that retrograde amnesia could be explained as “trauma that disrupts consolidation of memory”. Wearing’s episodic memory and some of his sematic memory are lost. He cannot transfer new information into long-term memory either.
Wearing can still play the piano and conduct the music that he knew before his illness. These skills are part of implicit memory. The face that he can do this is evidence of a disturbed memory system, since implicit memory is linked to a brain structure other than the hippocampus. His emotional memory is also intact, which is clearly demonstrated in the affection he constantly shows for his wife.
Name: The case study of HM
Researchers: Milner and Scoville
Date: 1957
Definition: underwent brain surgery for intractable epilepsy in 1953
Aim: To study the role of hippocampus in memory
Method: HM was told to perform several sensorimotor motor task such as mirror-reading, playing video games and solving puzzles.
Results: HM could not recall ever doing those tasks and claimed he did not know how to do them but after training, he could perform them perfectly.
Conclusion: The hippocampus is a crucial structure for the transfer of new knowledge from STM to LTM though not procedural memories, which depend on the basal ganglia and cerebellum.
Evaluation: Researcher bias may be present, ethical considerations were taken into the account, it has showed us that the hippocampus is the key structure involved in the transfer of new declarative data from STM to LTM.
Researchers: Milner and Scoville
Date: 1957
Definition: underwent brain surgery for intractable epilepsy in 1953
Aim: To study the role of hippocampus in memory
Method: HM was told to perform several sensorimotor motor task such as mirror-reading, playing video games and solving puzzles.
Results: HM could not recall ever doing those tasks and claimed he did not know how to do them but after training, he could perform them perfectly.
Conclusion: The hippocampus is a crucial structure for the transfer of new knowledge from STM to LTM though not procedural memories, which depend on the basal ganglia and cerebellum.
Evaluation: Researcher bias may be present, ethical considerations were taken into the account, it has showed us that the hippocampus is the key structure involved in the transfer of new declarative data from STM to LTM.
- Discuss how social or cultural factors affect one cognitive process (for example, education, carpentered-world hypothesis, effect of video games on attention).
According to the US psychologist Jerome Bruner, children of any culture learn the basics of culture through schooling and daily interaction with members of the culture in which they live.
When researchers from the West performed tests with participants in non-western countries, they found that they did poorly on many memory tests. This was because there was a western bias in the test, and therefore not valid when applied in another culture. Cole and Scribner did a research on this and they found that illiterate children didn’t use strategies like chunking – grouping bits of information into larger units – to help them remember. They recalled the objects more easily and actually chunked them according to the roles they played in the story. This is called a narrative. It seems that even though the ability to remember is universal, strategies for remembering are not universal. This is therefore a problem that many traditional memory studies are associated with formal schooling. The conclusion is that people learn to remember in ways that are relevant for their everyday live and these do not always mirror the activities that cognitive psychologists use to investigate mental processes. |
Name: Cross-cultural research
Researcher: Cole and Scribner Date: 1974 Definition: People learn to remember in ways that are relevant for their everyday lives, and these do not always mirror activities that cognitive psychologists use to investigate mental process. Aim: Investigation of memory strategy in different cultures. Method: They compared recall of the word series in the US and among Kpelle people of rural Liberia. The researchers asked Liberian children from different age groups to recall as many items as possible from four categories. Results: Non-schooled children didn’t improve their performance on free recall tasks after the age of 10. They remembered around ten items the first time. After 15 practice trials they remembered only two more items. Children who attended school, learned the list as rapidly as children in the US, and they used the same strategy to recall that is based on categorical similarity of the objects. Evaluation: Since the study was an experimental study, it is possible to determine cause and effect. An advantage here was that the researchers took people from the existing groups, instead of assigning them to groups, which increased the ecological validity. Disadvantage is that the extraneous variables weren’t controlled. |
- With reference to relevant research studies, to what extent is one cognitive process reliable (for example, reconstructive memory, perception/visual illusions, decision-making/heuristics)?
Reliability of memory
Researchers have demonstrated that memory may not be as reliable as we think. Memories may be influenced by other factors than what was recorded in the first place, due to the reconstructive nature of memory. Reconstructive memory is the process of putting information together based on general types of stored knowledge in the absence of a specific memory representation.
Sigmund Freud was convinced that forgetting was caused by repression. According to Freud, people who experience intense emotional and anxiety-provoking events may use defense mechanisms, such as repression, to protect their conscious self from knowing things that they cannot cope with. They send the dangerous memories to the unconscious, which means that they will deny it has ever happened. However, the memory will continue to haunt them in symbolic forms in their dreams until a therapist is able to retrieve the memory using specific techniques. Some researchers claim that these techniques can create false memories, which people consequently believe to be true.
Researchers have demonstrated that memory may not be as reliable as we think. Memories may be influenced by other factors than what was recorded in the first place, due to the reconstructive nature of memory. Reconstructive memory is the process of putting information together based on general types of stored knowledge in the absence of a specific memory representation.
Sigmund Freud was convinced that forgetting was caused by repression. According to Freud, people who experience intense emotional and anxiety-provoking events may use defense mechanisms, such as repression, to protect their conscious self from knowing things that they cannot cope with. They send the dangerous memories to the unconscious, which means that they will deny it has ever happened. However, the memory will continue to haunt them in symbolic forms in their dreams until a therapist is able to retrieve the memory using specific techniques. Some researchers claim that these techniques can create false memories, which people consequently believe to be true.
Name: Reliability of eyewitness testimony
Researchers: Loftus and Palmer Date: 1974 Definition: Memory can be defined as capacity to retain and store information Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate how information supplied after an event, influences a witness’s memory for that event. Method: The study consists of two laboratory experiments, one was about the speed estimation and the second one was a response to the question: “Did you see any broken glass?” She designed an experimental procedure in which she manipulated questions after showing participants a film, in order to see how this affected what they remembered. Results: In the first experiment which was about the estimation of speed, the results showed that the phrasing of the question brought about a change in speed estimate. With smashed eliciting a higher speed estimate that contacted, and in the second experiment, results showed a significant effect of the verb in the question on the mis-perception of glass in the film. Conclusion: This research suggests that memory is easily distorted by questioning technique and information acquired after the event can merge with original memory causing inaccurate recall or reconstructive memory. Evaluation: Loftus and Palmer argue that two kinds of information go into a person's memory of a complex event. One way in which we could criticize this argument is to recognize that it is not only the type of question asked but also many other factors which could influence your memory of an event. The main strength of Loftus' argument is its wider implications. |
Name: Reliability of the memory
Researcher: Frederic Bartlett Date: 1932 Definition: Bartlett argued that memory is reconstructive and that schemas influence recall. One of the methods used was serial reproduction, where one person reproduces the original story; a second person has to reproduce the first reproduction, etc. The method is meant to duplicate the process by which rumors and gossip are spread, or legends are passed from generation to generation. Aim: To demonstrate the role of culture in schema processing. Method: The story in Bartlett’s study is based on a Native American legend. He asked the participants to read the story twice. None of the participants knew the purpose or the aim of the experiment. After 15 minutes, Bartlett asked the participants to reproduce the story from memory. He asked them to reproduce the story a couple of times more when they had the opportunity to come into his laboratory. Results: He noticed how each participant’s memory of an experience changed with each reproduction. It appeared that “War of the Ghosts” was difficult for people from western cultures to reproduce because of its unfamiliar style and content. Bartlett found some characteristic changes in the reproduction of the story.
Evaluation: Strengths:
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- Discuss the use of technology in investigating cognitive processes (for example, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans in memory research, fMRI scans in decision-making research).