Schemas

Callen Clegg

First of all…

Schemas - Definition

“A mental structure we use to organize and simplify out knowledge of the world around us.” (bibliography 2)

History

• Comes from the Greek word skhema (pl. Skhemata).

• Frederic Bartlett 1932 – when working on constructive memory.– “maps of knowledge in long-term memory.”

Typical use of schemas

• Visual– Age– Race - Stereotypes– Gender

• When something is encoded in our brains– Certain objects represent different thoughts– When knowing a certain part of information,

one can connect this information with another part of information.

Now…

You need:

1. A piece of paper

2. A pen

Your task #1…

• Right down as many points that u remember in image 1 (the office).

Your second task…

• Right down as many points that u remember in image 2 (The car collision).

Analysis of the Activity

People tend to remember items that fit into the schema. In other words, people remember things which relate through a theme similarity etc.

People sometimes tend to remember things because they stick out. This is usually because people are focusing on things that are not actually in the targeted area.

It is also possible that people think of things that are not actually there, but they belong in the theme, so therefore the memory makes this part up, so that we do not need to memorize as much.

Bibliography

1. http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Schemas

2. http://changinminds.org/explanations/schema.htm

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema

4. http://www.wallraff.at/img/office/office_1.jpg

5. http://media.nowpublic.net/images//e0/d/e0d90fca2806eadde2be6bed72bef902.jpg