Limitations of Memory - Schema Theory

According to schema theory, the knowledge we have stored in memory is organized as a set of schemata which incorporates all the knowledge of a given object or event that we have acquired from past experience. In other words, our experiences are organized into different categories based on our previous knowledge. For example, when you go to doctor and he or she takes a blood sample from you, after that you automatically put it into a category in your memory and when you go to doctor next time you will know what to expect there. People can quickly organize new perceptions into schemata and act effectively without effort. Schema theory emphasizes the fact that what we remember is influenced by what we already know. Schemata also represent an active process and can change over time as a result of new experiences and learning. Many psychologists examined schema theory by conduting studies such as Bartlett, 1932, Loftus & Palmer, 1974, French & Richards,1993, and Ronald Cotton legal case study.

The concept of schemata was firstly introduced in 1932 by Frederic Barlett. He conducted a famous study called “War of the Ghosts” where he showed that memory recall is influenced by pre-existing knowledge, also known as schema, which is influenced by many different factors such as cultural background. Barlett had the participants to read an Indian folk tale called “War of the Ghosts” and then tested their recall of it on several occasions. Individuals mangled the story more with each attempt to remember it, notably by changing elements of the legend to match their own expectations, and sometimes even adding a moral to it. This experiment proves that people use frameworks of knowledge that they already have to remember and interpret the new memories that they obtained.

Another study that examined schema theory was Loftus& Palmer study conducted in 1974. The attempt of this study is to demonstrate that memory is not a factual recording of an event and that memories can become easily distorted by other information which occurs after the event. In this study the participants were shown short videos of car accidents. Following each video, the students were asked to answer some specific questions but the critical question had to do with the speed of the vehicles involved in the collision. The important question was 'About how fast were the cars going when they _____ each other?'. In each condition, a different word or phrase was used to fill in the blank. These words were; smashed, collided, bumped, hit, and contacted. The results are shown in the table on the left. The results of the experiment show that the way the question is asked can influence the recall of the memory.

 French & Richards Experiment (1993) also supports the idea of schema theory. In the study there were three conditions: 

• Condition One: participants were shown a clock with roman numerals and asked to draw the clock from memory
• Condition Two: the same procedure, except the participants were told before hand that they would be required to draw the clock from memory
• Condition Three: the clock was left in full view of the participants and they just had to draw the clock.

The clock used represented the number four with IIII, not the conventional IV. In the first two conditions,  the majority of participants reverted to the conventional IV notation, whereas in the third condition, the IIII notation. This shows that participants' memory was influenced by their own schema which says that number four is normally represented with IV notation. 

Lastly,  Ronald Cotton legal case study also shows that schema theory works. This case study shows that pictures that were shown to the eye-witness in the line-up significantly influenced her memory of the criminal. Since the real rapist was not presented in the line-up, the eye-witness picked the one that resembled the criminal the most and from that moment her memory was changed. In her memory, was now her rapist Ronald Cotton even though he was totally innocent. Later on even though she saw her real rapist, Bobby Poole, she did not recognize him because in her memory the rapist was now Ronald Cotton. 

All of the studies listed above show that the memory is malleable and can be changed really easily. All of the studies supports schema theory which says that memories are stored into different subcategories based on our previous experiences. Schema theory both helps and hinders the actual memory recall. It helps it because our brain can store a huge amount of information just because it is so well-organized into different subcategories. However, schema theory also hinders the memory recall because sometimes the information does not really fit into any of the categories so then our brain has to put it somewhere where it can be unfortunately easily manipulated and changed.