1. Schema and Schema Theory

2. What is a schema?
Cognitive structures that represents a person’s knowledge
First used by Piaget in 1926
“pre-existing assumption about the way the world is organized”
Used to organize, recall, guide behavior make predictions
Helps us make sense of new situations
Automatic
Culturally specific

3. Key Vocab:
Schema-mental representation of knowledge stored in the brain
Script-a specific type of schema (events or situations)
Assimilation-adding new information to existing schema
Accommodation-building new schema for new information or existing schema is replaced
Social norms-expected or usual ways to behave
Reconstructive memory-if incoming information is unclear, “filling in the gaps” using existing schema

4. Characteristics of Schema:
Intangible
Organized meaningfully
Can be added at any time
Can be re-organized by moment as new data is received
May be innately programmed to organize information into schemas

5. Refresher: What is a theory?
Gives insight into psychological phenomena which cannot be observed
Describe or explain psychological phenomena in the social world
TEACUP! To Evaluate a theory.

6. Schema Theory Seeks to explain how we interpret or perceive the world
Predicts that we interpret experiences by using relevant social and textual schemas
Tries to explain memory distortions and reconstructive memories

7. An example:

8. TEACUP-Schema Theory Evaluation: Schema Theory
Testable: Schema theory is testable. By priming one's schema, we are able to determine whether the schema helps or interferes with learning - as seen in the study by Anderson & Pitchert.
Empirical evidence: There is a lot of research that has supported schema theory. Above you can see the studies by Anderson & Pitchert and Brewer & Treyens. There is also biological research to support the way in which the brain categorizes input. For example, Caramazza (2009) found that from the visual cortex, information about living and non-living objects is shuttled to different parts of the brain so as to trigger appropriate reactions - even in blind participants. These new findings suggest that the wiring that connects different areas of the visual cortex with appropriate regions in the rest of the brain is innate - it does have to form gradually based on visual inputs. This means that our brain automatically sorts information and classifies it, in the same manner which schema theory predicts.
Applications: Schema theory has been applied to help us understand how memory works. It also is helps us to understand memory distortion. Schema theory has also been applied in abnormal psychology (Beck's research on depression), relationships (research on violence and bullying) and in health psychology (health campaigns). It is a robust theory that has many applications across many fields of psychology.
Construct validity: Cohen (1993) argued that the concept of schema is too vague and hypothetical to be useful. Schema cannot be observed. Even the use of fMRI simply show brain activity, they do not clarify what exactly the individual is processing at the time.
Unbiased: Schema theory is applied across cultures. There is no apparent bias in the research, although most of the early research was done in the West.
Predictive validity: The theory helps to predict behaviour. We can predict, for example, what types of information will be best recalled when given a list of words. Trends, such as leveling and sharpening, are commonly seen in individuals recalling a news story. However, we cannot predict exactly what an individual will recall.
Finally, another criticism of the theory is that it is not entirely clear how schemas are acquired in the first place and how they influence cognitive processes. It is not possible to actually observe schema processing taking place within the brain.