Two Key Studies on Schema Theory: Bartlett (1932) & Riso et al. (2006) (DP IB Psychology)

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

• 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 male which makes the findings difficult to generalise

Key terms:

• Cultural schemas

• Serial reproduction

• Reconstructive memory

Key Study: Riso et al. (2006)

Aim: To investigate the long-term stability of EMS over a 2.5 to 5 year interval

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