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The Nature of Memory
& Schema Theory

Memory Essay Prompts:
2nd to Last Day before Winter
Break
Discuss the influence that schemas have on the
formation and/or retrieval of memories.
To what extent is memory reliable?
Evaluate the theory of Flashbulb Memories.

On Demand Writing Protocol
Phones in Phone Boxes.
Backpacks Away.
All notes put away.
Stamped Paper.

Memory Day 1
 I can explain what memory is and begin to explain how it
works.

Exercise #1
 Listen to the following story. Do not take notes.

One night two young men from Egulac went down to the river to hunt seals
and while they were there it became foggy and calm. Then they heard war-
cries, and they thought: "Maybe this is a war-party". They escaped to the
shore, and hid behind a log. Now canoes came up, and they heard the noise
of paddles, and saw one canoe coming up to them. There were five men in the
canoe, and they said:
"What do you think? We wish to take you along. We are going up the river to
make war on the people."
One of the young men said, "I have no arrows."
"Arrows are in the canoe," they said.
"I will not go along. I might be killed. My relatives do not know where I have
gone. But you," he said, turning to the other, "may go with them."
So one of the young men went, but the other returned home.
And the warriors went on up the river to a town on the other side of Kalama.
The people came down to the water and they began to fight, and many were
killed. But presently the young man heard one of the warriors say, "Quick, let
us go home: that Indian has been hit." Now he thought: "Oh, they are
ghosts." He did not feel sick, but they said he had been shot.
So the canoes went back to Egulac and the young man went ashore to his
house and made a fire. And he told everybody and said: "Behold I
accompanied the ghosts, and we went to fight. Many of our fellows were
killed, and many of those who attacked us were killed. They said I was hit,
and I did not feel sick."
He told it all, and then he became quiet. When the sun rose he fell down.
Something black came out of his mouth. His face became contorted. The
people jumped up and cried.
He was dead.

Exercise #2
Draw the heads side of a penny.

Exercise #3: Recall
 Provide the names of the seven dwarves from Snow White.

Exercise #3: Recognition Test
Dumby
Happy
Chubby
Doc
Sleepy
Bashful
Smarty
Braty
Laughy
Coughy
Dopey
Cutey
Toughy
Milky
Grumpy
Sneezy

Exercise #4: Remember as many
numbers as you can.
682375987728092623596

Now Try This
482-972-460-173-081-749-375
Chunking- When people reorganize and group
information into small groups.

Miller’s Magic Number 7
Plus/Minus 2
 760234983
 Critical Thinking
 Long words like “onomatopoeia” are harder to remember
than short words like “dog” & “ball”
 Psychologists now believe that we can recall about four
chunks of information at a time, which works out to
approximately six letters, five one-syllable words and seven
digits.

Exercise #5: Group 1
 Read the paragraph about doing laundry.

Exercise #5: Group 2
 Read the paragraph.

The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different
groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there
is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the
next step, otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo
things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the
short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A
mistake can be expensive as well. At first the whole procedure will seem
complicated.
Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee
any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one
never can tell, After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials
into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate
places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then
have to be repeated. However, that is part of life.

Memory Quotations
Read the following quotes and decide which one
you agree with most.
Be prepared to share and defend your choices.

Early Research into Memory
Ebbinghaus – 1885
Used self as subject
Tested his memory using lists of 3-letter
nonsense syllables (like KAF, PEB, LEV)
Nonsense because he didn’t want his existing
knowledge to be able to help out his memory
Method: Relearning Task – Learned a list,
set it aside for a period of time, then later
relearned the material to the same level.

Memory Day 2: Warm Up
 Explore the list of quotes about memory. Based on our
memory exercises from last class and your own
understanding, which quote does the best job at describing
the nature of memory? Be prepared to share.

What is Memory?
 The capacity to retain and retrieve information, and
also the mental structures that account for this capacity.
 Short Term Memory: The storage of information for a
short/temporary period
 Long Term Memory
 Explicit Memory  Declarative Memory
 Implicit Memory  Procedural Memory

Explicit Memories
Explicit/Declarative Memory – Conscious,
intentional recollection of an event or an
item of information.
“Knowing What”
Recall- Retrieve and reproduce memory from
previously encountered material.
Recognition – The ability to identify previously
encountered material.

Implicit Memory
• Implicit Memory - The unconscious retention of
previous experiences that creep into our current
thoughts/actions.
• “Knowing How”
• Procedural Memories- Memories that help you
perform certain procedures and tasks.

Autobiographical Memory
A memory of specific and, personal events from
our lives.
Often times these memories are very emotional in
nature.
 Sometimes remembered in the first person,
sometimes in the third person.

Stages of Memory
& Working Memory

The Biology of Memory
 Explore the resources on my website.
 As you explore them, write down key concepts and phrases
as they relate to the following three stages of memory.
 Encoding
 Storage
 Retrieval and Confounding Variables (Stress, Importance, Age,
Schemas, etc)
 Complete the Psychological Dominoes Worksheet that
explains how memories are formed and why they are
forgotten.

Scoville & Milner (1957):
HM Case Study
 Aim: To determine the extent of HM’s memory issues.
 Method: Asked HM to perform a task where he traced star
shapes while only looking through a mirror. Tracked his
progress.
 Findings:
 HM did not remember performing the task ever before, however,
his performance did improve.
 HM was not able to form new declarative memories, but could
remember old declarative memories.
 HM was able to carry on conversations to a certain extent,
showing some ability to create short-term-memories.
 Conclusions: The hippocampus is responsible for converting
short-term declarative memories into Long-Term Memory.
There is a difference between declarative and implicit
memories.

Newcomer et al (1999)
 teded: Stress & Memory
 Aim: To determine the role of cortisol on memory.
 Method: Double-Blind study that had asked three groups to take
varying levels of cortisol over a four day period and tested their
ability to remember verbal information.
1. High Level: Tablet of 160 mg Cortisol each day…simulates a
major stressful event.
2. Low Level: Tablet of 40 mg of Cortisol each day…Simulated
a minor stressful event.
3. Placebo: Tablet with no active ingredient.

Newcomer et al. (1999)
continued
Findings:
The High Level group performed worse on
the memory test than the Low Level group.
The Low Level group showed no memory
decrease when compared with the placebo
group.
Conclusions: High Levels of cortisol
have a negative impact on a person’s
ability to recall verbal data.

Essay Prompt
 Discuss the influence that schemas have on the formation
and/or retrieval of memories.

Schema Theory
A mental representation of knowledge stored in the
brain. A network of knowledge, beliefs, and
expectations about particular aspects of the world.
 The lens that you see the world through.
 Paradigms

The War of the Ghosts
The War of the Ghosts
What similarities/accurate recollections are
there?
What differences/errors did you make?
What might this show about your memory?

Bartlett (1932) 
Schema Theory
 Aim: To determine whether a person’s memory is impacted
by the knowledge (schemas) and the extent to which memory
is reconstructive.
 Method: Had British citizens read the story and then rewrite it
based on their memory repeatedly over the course of several
months.
 Finding/Results: Participants remembered the main ideas but
not all the details. This is called Distortion.
 Remembered it as being shorter.
 The story became consistent with the participants cultural
expectations. This is called Assimilation.
 Conclusion: Memory is an ACTIVE PROCESS that is
influenced by our experiences and understanding of how the
world works SCHEMA THEORY IS BORN!!!!
 Explanation: How did schemas impact memory? Why did
schemas impact memory?
 Critical Thinking?

Schemas & Memory
Sensory
Input
Storage:
Memory
Retrieval
Encoding
Schema

Johnson & Bayford (1972)
 Aim: Investigate how schemas help us to store new information in our memory
 Method: Participants are randomly divided into three groups. All participants
are read a paragraph describing a number of steps in a certain procedure.
 Group 1 are told that the paragraph is about doing laundry before they hear
the paragraph.
 Group 2 are told that the paragraph is about doing laundry after they hear the
paragraph, before they are asked to recall it
 Group 3 are not told what the paragraph is about.
All participants are then tested on how much of the paragraph they can recall.
 Findings: The group that were told the topic of the paragraph before they
listened to it (Group 1) had significantly better memory than the other two
groups.
 Conclusion: Schemas help participants encode new information by making it
possible to organize and interpret the information.
 Explanation: How did schemas impact memory in this situation? Why did
schemas impact memory in this situation?
 Critical Thinking?

Brewer and Treyens (1981)
Aim: To investigate whether people’s
memory for objects in a room is influenced
by their existing schemas.
Method:
30 university students were asked to wait in
an office before being called into a research
study.
Participants were taken out of the office and
asked to write down everything they could
remember from the room.

Brewer and Treyens (1981)
Findings:
 Most participants recalled the schematic objects (desk,
typewriter).
 Some participants reported things that would be expected but
were not present (books, telephone, etc.)
 Many participants recalled non schematic items such as the
skull…Unusual items resulted in better memory than schema
theory predicted.
Conclusions: Schemas do impact memory, but only to a
certain extent.
Explanation: How did schemas impact memory in this
situation? Why did schemas impact memory in this
situation?
Critical Thinking?

C9-Allport and Postman (1947)
Aim: To determine how schemas impact the recall
of images.
Method:
 Showed the image of the men arguing to both white and
black participants
 Had white participants share their story with another white
individual, who then shared it again. (Game of Telephone)
 Black participants did the same thing with other black
participants.

Allport and Postman (1947)
Findings:
 White: After a few retellings, the black man generally
became the aggressor.
 Black: After a few retellings, they were generally more
accurate.
Conclusion: Schemas of race impacted the
reconstruction of memories.
Explanation: How did schemas impact memory in
this situation? Why did schemas impact memory in
this situation?
Critical Thinking?

Sticky Note Discussion/Essay Prep
 Study Assignments
 Person A: Bartlett
 Person B: Johnson & Bayford
 Person C: Brewer & Treyen
 Person D: Allport & Postmen
 Travel around the room and find someone who represents a
study that would be useful to you if your were using it as
evidence for an essay. Consider which study would work best.
 Once you find your partner, discuss and record how schemas
impacted the formation and/or retrieval of memories in your
studies.
 Work together to write a thesis statement that summarizes how
your studies demonstrate the impacts that schemas have on the
formation and/or retrieval of memories.

Evaluate Schema Theory
What are the strengths of schema theory?
What are the limitations of schema theory?
What applications are there for schema
theory beyond memory?
Do you trust the research done on schema
theory? Why or why not?

Strengths Limitations
Evaluation of Schema Theory
Lots of research that
defends schemas.
Helps understand the
reconstructive nature
of memory/perception.
“Social Schemas” help
explain stereotypes.
 Not entirely clear how
schemas are acquired
and how they actually
influence cognitive
processes.
 Because we are not born
with schemas, how do
children develop them?
 Some argue that they
are too vague to be
useful.

Schema Discussion
On your sticky note, complete the following
thesis statement:
Schemas impact the memories because…

The Case of Clive Wearing
(C7 Biological Impact on Memory)
Clive Wearing Video (Sorry for the blurry
picture)
How does Clive Wearing’s story relate to
what we already know about memory?
What memories does Clive still have and
what ones does he not have?
How does Clive Wearing’s Memory
problems relate to the models of memory?

Memory Warm-Up
Write an overview of your freshman
orientation day here at TuHS.
What did you see? Who did you meet?
Where did you go? What happened? In
what order?

Learning Outcomes
 C6- Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process
with reference to research studies.
 Learning Outcomes
 We are learning about two models that explain how our
memories work.
 We are learning this because it will help us better understand
how we can use our memories to help us in life.
 We are hoping to be able to evaluate the strengths and
limitations of both models of memory.

Study Strategies
 Do the following strategies use the Multi-Store or Working
Model of Memory?
 Flash Cards
 Graphic Organizers
 Rhyming
 Associations
 Visualization
 Storytelling
 Writing Sentences & Summaries
 Playing Games

Autobiographical Memories
What is your earliest memory? Describe it.
About how old were you in this memory?
How do each model explain how this
memory was formed?

Models of Memory
1. Remember back to your first day at Tualatin
High School (Or pick another memory). You
will work with your group to act out how a
memory is formed. (See example)
a. Which model best explains your
memories?
2. Create an analogy for each of the models.
Include each component and explain why your
analogy represents these models.

Memory pp

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