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SL IB Psychology Your notes

Cognitive Schema
Contents
Schema Theory
Two Key Studies on Schema Theory: Bartlett (1932) & Riso et al. (2006)

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Schema Theory
Your notes
Schema Theory
What is a schema?
A schema is a mental representation of something i.e. a schema for concrete, tangible things such as
‘cat’, ‘house’, ‘mother’ or for abstract ideas/concepts such as ‘freedom’, ‘jealousy’, ‘love’
A schema holds all of the information that an individual has assimilated over the course of their life so
far, obtained via direct personal experience e.g. going to school or via the media e.g. watching a TV
series about school life or via contact with others e.g. parents telling you about their experience of
school
There are frame schemas which include the details and characteristics of an item or person or object
e.g. ‘cat’, ‘house’, ‘mother’
There are script schemas which include the sequences and expectations as to what will be involved in
an event or experience e.g. going to school involves taking the bus, chatting with friends at break,
being in lessons, hearing the bell sound, being set homework etc.
A schema can be adapted according to experience e.g. if you meet someone who has been home-
schooled then your ‘school’ schema will accommodate this new information i.e. some people don’t
actually go to a school for their schooling but instead they learn at home
A person’s schemas are not right or wrong, they are simply the product of assimilation and thus are
subjective – people’s schemas may overlap but they will not be identical as each schema is built on
individual experience
What is the relevance of schema and memory?
A schema is a set of pre-existing ideas, beliefs and concepts an individual has about people, places,
events, ideas etc. which means that schemas may give rise to distorted memory
When you experience an event either directly or indirectly it is usual for schematic activation to guide
your understanding/expectation of that event e.g. you plan a holiday to Italy where you expect to see a
lot of people waving their arms around in an excitable way and eating pasta (not at the same time of
course!) hence schemas also contribute to stereotypes
The problem with having set and pre-determined schemas is that they can interfere with accurate
recall– this happens when someone recalls an event not as it truly happened but as a result of
schematic interference i.e. their schemas ‘got in the way’ of 100% accurate recall of the event
(generally people are unaware of this happening)
Schemas are relevant to reconstructive memory (which is dealt with as a separate Revision Note on
this site) as they produce biased recall e.g. you are in a pub and there is a fight, the police ask you what
you witnessed and you say that one man was bleeding but in fact this is not true – your schema for
‘fight’ added blood at the scene because it fits your schema for ‘fight’
Cultural schemas may lead to incorrect and faulty recall of material which does not align with or fit into
a person’s schema based on their own culture

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Your notes

Schemas are continually forming, being adapted, and are sometimes discarded if they are no longer
relevant to us.

What are Early Maladaptive Schemas?

An Early Maladaptive Schema (EMS) is a type of self-schema in which a person’s early, childhood
experience forms the basis for their self-image, self-esteem and general well-being
An EMS may develop if a child is abused, neglected or placed into situations which are distressing
and/or unpredictable
An EMS is stable – which means it is resistant to change – and consists of long-term beliefs about the
self which are very difficult to eradicate, even if the person undergoes years of therapy or counselling
An EMS may well lead to the development of a mental disorder such as Major Depressive Disorder
(MDD) or anxiety disorders
Types of EMS include:
Abandonment (which develops if someone feels that their caregivers are unreliable and/or cold
and unloving);
Defectiveness (which develops if someone has been told that they are not worthy of love, that
they are bad, that people will reject them) and
Failure to Achieve (which develops if someone believes that they are doomed to always fail and
that others are better than them)
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Your notes

An Early Maladaptive Schema may blight a person’s life…

Which research studies investigate schema theory?

Bartlett (1932) – cultural schemas produce distorted recall of a culturally unfamiliar story
Riso et al. (2006) – found that EMS are stable and long-lasting and so should be treated using suitable
therapy
Bartlett (1932) and Riso et al. (2006) are available as separate Key Studies – just navigate the Cognitive
Processing section of this topic to find it (Two Key Studies of Schema Theory).
Bartlett’s study is also included in Two Key Studies of Reconstructive Memory which can be found in the
Reliability of Cognitive Processes section of this site.

Exam Tip
Do be careful NOT to use schema theory research for a question on ‘Thinking and Decision-Making’ or
‘Cognitive Biases’. You will receive ZERO marks if you do – schema theory is a theory in itself and it can
also be used to answer questions on reconstructive memory but THAT’S IT!
If you try to ‘shoehorn’ schema theory into any other questions, then you will be wasting your time as
the examiner will not award you any marks for trying to do so

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Worked example
Your notes
SAQ - Short Answer Question - 9 marks
Describe one study of schema theory. [9]
The command term ‘Describe’ requires you to go into some study detail. Here are some paragraphs
that describe the results of a schema theory study:
Bartlett found that the British participants tended to change the Native American story to suit their own
cultural schemas. For example; levelling took place which could be seen in the shortening of the story
(the original story was approximately 350 words and the participants’ version was around 180 words).
They also tended to omit details which were irregular to their schema e.g. no mention of the
supernatural elements of the story, even missing out the key focus of ghosts fighting.
Sharpening also occurred, where participants omitted cultural points e.g. place names were simply
ignored, and assimilation occurred when participants changed words to suit their own schema –
instead of recalling the word ‘canoe’, the participants would recall the word ‘boat’; ‘paddling’ was
recalled as ‘rowing’.
Assimilation also occurred where the story was altered to suit the participants’ schema. For example,
the recalled story would follow a more traditionally Western narrative format. Bartlett concluded that
people do not record events or stories like a camera but instead they take information in and distort it
to fit their schema, omitting details, changing anything that is not consistent with their pre-existing
schema.

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Two Key Studies on Schema Theory: Bartlett (1932) & Riso et al.
(2006) Your notes

Key Study: Bartlett (1932)

Aim: To investigate the effect of cultural schemas on recall of a culturally unfamiliar story
Participants: 20 male undergraduate students from the University of Cambridge in the UK
Procedure: Bartlett instigated a procedure known as serial reproduction, in which one participant read the
story then reproduced it in writing; this was then read to a second person who then wrote his own memory
of the story which was then read to a third person who then produced his own version of the story and so
on.
Results: Bartlett found that the resulting stories bore little similarity to the original Native American folk tale.
The changes made by the participants included:
Omission: Key details of the story were ignored or missed out, particularly unfamiliar or unpleasant
details such as a contorted face or black coming out of a mouth. Participants even omitted the key
idea that ghosts were fighting which is surprising as this is the title of the story. Ghosts were soon
dropped from the re-telling of the story as they do not fit with the way that adult males see the world,
particularly in relation to war; details such as a contorted face were omitted as they may have caused
unpleasant memories.
Assimilation and sharpening: Story details were changed to suit the participants’ own cultural
schemas e.g. ‘canoes’ became ‘boats’; ‘paddling’ became ‘rowing’. Details such as the spirit wound
were re-interpreted as a flesh wound with words such as ‘therefore’ and ‘because’ inserted to explain
the events.
Levelling: The story became shorter - the original story was approximately 350 words and the
participants’ version was around 180 words
Conclusion: Cultural schemas contribute to the reconstructive nature of memory i.e. memory is not a
passive state in which events are recorded like a camera would record them, instead memory is an active
process in which pre-existing information and expectations may interfere with the accuracy and reliability
of the memory
Evaluation of Bartlett (1932)
Strengths
Bartlett’s study was one of the first pieces of research to highlight the role of schema in reconstructive
memory e.g. two people who witness the same event may give very different accounts of what they
have seen
Bartlett’s procedure (serial reproduction) is replicable which means that it could be repeated to check
for reliability
Limitations

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This is very dated research: university students in the UK are much more aware of wider multi-cultural
issues today than they were in the 1930s which means that the results may lack temporal validity
Bartlett’s sample was small and limited to an elite demographic of university students who were all Your notes
male which makes the findings difficult to generalise
Key terms:
Cultural schemas
Serial reproduction
Reconstructive memory

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Key Study: Riso et al. (2006)

Aim: To investigate the long-term stability of EMS over a 2.5 to 5 year interval Your notes
Participants: 55 outpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) 43 females, 12 males, 90% Caucasian
Procedure: EMS were assessed with the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) of 16 maladaptive schemas,
including the following:
- Emotional deprivation - ‘People have not been there to meet my emotional needs’
- Failure to achieve - ‘Most other people are more capable than I am in areas of work and achievement’
- Vulnerability to harm - ‘I can’t seem to escape the feeling that something bad is about to happen’
- Subjugation - ‘I feel that I have no choice but to give in to other peoples’ wishes, or else they will retaliate
or reject me in some way’
Results: 75% of participants showed evidence of EMS.Participants in remission were less affected by EMS
than others
Conclusion: EMS are stable over time for those with depression
Evaluation of Riso et al. (2006)
Strengths
The findings have good application: they could be used to inform therapy/interventions for people at
risk of depression
Triangulation of data was obtained through the use of multiple questionnaires to measure levels of
depression and mood, EMS, and other key variables which increases the reliability of the findings
Weaknesses
Quantitative data only was collected but to understand the complexities of depression it would have
been better to include qualitative methods as well
The participants had chronic depression so the results cannot be generalised to people with other
mental
disorders, or to those who suffer from less chronic depression
Key terms:
Early Maladaptive Schemas
Major Depressive Disorder
Triangulation

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