Schema
What was the aim of Bartlett’s (1932) “War of the Ghosts” study?
To investigate how memory is reconstructed when recalling unfamiliar stories from another culture.
What evidence from Glanzer & Cunitz (1966) supports the MSM?
Glanzer & Cunitz (1966) found that people remember the first and last words of a list best — this is called the serial position effect. The primacy effect shows that early words were rehearsed and stored in long-term memory, while the recency effect shows that later words were still held in short-term memory. When rehearsal was prevented, only the primacy effect remained — proving that STM and LTM are separate memory stores as described by the Multi-Store Model.
How do dual-process models (System 1 & 2) explain these findings?
System 1 uses heuristics (quick, emotional) leading to biases; System 2 is slower, logical but effortful.
How did Loftus & Pickrell (1995) demonstrate false memories?
Participants recalled a false “lost in the mall” event as if real.
How did Bartlett’s findings demonstrate cognitive processing?
Participants changed unfamiliar details to fit their cultural schemas,
What does HM’s case study show about memory?
His inability to form new long-term memories supports separate STM and LTM stores.
What is anchoring bias in decision-making?
Anchoring bias is when people rely too heavily on the first piece of information (the “anchor”) when making a judgment or estimate.
What did Brewer & Treyens (1981) study about memory and schemas?
How office-related schemas influence recall of objects in a room.
What is a major criticism of the MSM?
It oversimplifies LTM and STM — memory is more complex (e.g. WMM shows separate systems).
How do schemas influence perception and interpretation of new information in daily life?
Schemas help us quickly interpret new information by fitting it into existing mental frameworks, but this can cause bias or stereotyping when information doesn’t match our expectations.
What was Baddeley & Hitch’s (1976) aim and what did they find?
To test if STM is a single or multiple-component system.
People could perform two tasks at once if they used different stores (e.g. verbal + visual), supporting separate components.
How might schema theory explain the persistence of stereotypes?
Schemas cause people to interpret new information in ways that confirm existing beliefs. Once a stereotype or false idea becomes part of a schema, contradictory evidence is often ignored, reinforcing biased thinking or “false memories” about groups or events.
What are the names of the parts in WMM?
the central executive, the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the episodic buffer