Schema and Script

Schema is a generalized knowledge about a situation or event. We form a schema about almost everything that has a certain pattern, or can be thought of as an abstraction with defined characteristics. In a schema we use mostly top-down processing. We use schemas to predict what will happen in a new situation. Every Fall you wonder which one of your students is the best. You have a previously formed schema about how a "best student" should be, should behave, should look like. We use these general patterns of knowledge, or heuristics, to relate to our environment and share our knowledge with others. We remember the new information based on our previous schema. The more consistent is the new information with the preexisting schema the better is remembered. When the material to be remembered is schema inconsistent, in order to be better remembered that new information has to develop a vivid memory that interrupts the existent schema (e.g., your best student one year had pink died hair, tatoos, and piercings. It is likely that you will remember very vivid that one.).

When we process new perceptual information (which happens to be a partial image of an object) and are asked to make a sketch of what we have seen we use top-down processing (which implies seeing the complete). For that reason our sketch will represent the entire information, that is because we expand the boundary in our perceptual processing. Now remember the falshbulb memory? We did a similar thing when instead of keeping a perfect memory in time, when we retrieve that "flashbulb" we add some new information to the existent one. In boundary extension we use the perception of our existent schema, and that is why we add information to the original one, by using Gestalt principles. We reconstruct the schema in the process of recall.

You have a personal schema that might be modified function of the environment you must perform. You behave in one way when at your work place, different when you are in the role of student, and different in your family, or with your friends. There is a cultural schema as well, and that depends on the information that is consistent with that culture. I might have told the story that I found it difficult to play the greeting game when I first came to the United States. "Hi, how are you doing?" "Good thanks, and how are you?" "Fine thanks..." means nothing more than "hello" and then the real conversation can start. In Romania if someone asks me "how are you?" the preson expects that I say something deeper than just a word game, then I will tell in a sentence about how I feel or what I do, or what I am up to, and the person will listen. So, my schema had to be accomodated to the new cultural meaning of greeting.

A script is a schema that has repetitive information, that usually repeats in time, as you would repeate more or less a recipe when you make a favorite dish. We have a script for most of our daily rutines.

Since we are born we develop scripts: about waking up and going to bed, eating at home or at a restaurant, dressing, playing, going to school, going to work, interacting with strangers and friends, etc. Scripts are one more easy and efficient way our brain adapts to this life.

One of my students posted this very nice description of how she teaches little ones about "coming in the morning to school," since this is such a wonderful description of a script I will post it here unmodified:


"For the first two weeks of school I had morning bus duty. I greeted the students as they got off the bus and directed them to where they needed to go. I can laugh now but at the time this was very frustrating. Everyday certain kindergarten students would ask, "Where do I go?", "Where is my class?". The script was simple-you come in and either follow the yellow line to breakfast or go down the steps and sit with your class on the gym floor (which is in the same place everyday)!You're teacher meets you in the gym and you follow her to class, where you unpack your backpack and hang it in your locker. Day after day this became routine for most, but for others it was new every morning. After the first week and a half, I finally noticed my stragglers pausing in the lobby trying to decide whether they were to walk down the steps or the hallway. At times I said nothing, just simply watched, other times I intervened with a question. By the end of the full two weeks, the script for school arrival was learned by everyone."

Semantic Memory

Declarative knowledge, many facts, and other information clustered in categories (class of information that belong together). A category is formed from abstract knowledge named concept. A concept is for example our mental representation of a dog.
Our semantic memory is often thought of as a list of features: fur, four-legs, pricked or droopy ears, sharp white teeth, braks, fetch for bones, etc. Check the list and see if it fits and you use the Feature Comparison model.

If we use ideal features of that four-legged, furry, little (or larger) animal that barks (but we don't have in mind one specific one of these) then we use the Prototype approach of a Dog. If instead we think of Taylor our family little white one going nuts when the waste management truck comes around, barks at the Mail person because he/she takes something out off our mail box, and hates the School bus because that is a monster that swallows the kids in the morning and spits them out in the afternoon (hopefully kids are a little smarter by then), then we use the Exemplar approach.

There are three big levels that usually prototypes are categorized.
Taylor, our little JRT family dog is just an exemplar at the subordinate level.
When we talk in general about a dog, that concept is at the basic level.
When we think of a dog as being a animal, we talk at the superordinate level.

Experts such as judges at the JRTCA and AKC trials use subordinate levels of thinking.
The judge is at the subordinate level since she/he has detailed knowledge about each breed and has such a refined semantic /conceptual memory that is able to separate the perfect prototypical dog from the many. As compared to me who is a novice; my knowledge is mostly at basic level and I also (like the judge) have some superordinate level knowledge that helps me separate the different breeds, and the different types of dogs. But I don't have a too developed subordinate level knowledge. So, the expert has a large knowledge at ALL three levels as opposed to a novice that has mostly basic level knowledge.
That means (if we look at the next model: Network model) that the judge will have a large and dense web of knowledge, compared to mine which will be "lighter" not as many connections, not as much detail.

Collins and Loftus (1975) developed the Network model that proposes that semantic memory is a structure similar to a net. In the nodes are the concepts that are linked, and all that forms a network. When one node is activated the activation will spread through the links to other nodes.
If certain specific links are more often used the activation will be faster through those links. (Like the "use it or loose it" process I explain in class, the more use, the "shinier" the path, the faster to slide on it).

According to ACT (Adaptive Control of Thought) we think in propositions and try to make sense of our declarative memory (factual memory that responds to the question "What?"). Propositions form a network also. There are links between the propositions and practice will increase our ability to make the links between the propositions.

PDP (Parallel Distributed Processing ,we learned in perceptual processing about this) another network-like model where the nods are like little neurons/units, that is why is called connectionist model. Activation of one little nod/neuron-like unit will activate in parallel many other linked units. From here the name of parallel distribution.

Retain that there are different approaches and some explain best certain processes while other ones explain best different other processes. We use what best fits for the needs of the process our brain is involved at that moment.

The beauty of semantic memory is that is factual, language, and concepts. All the "dictionary" we have in our mind. There are many useful ways to develop our semantic memory. One thing is very important that we expand it. As you know there is the Network model, in earlier chapters we learned about the connectionist model, and PDP.

Once a concept (or a label -- such as "cat") is activated, that information will connect to many other ones stored in our LTM (all the features and details about how a cat looks and behaves, what eats and what is not). Now, at times too much of those connections will give us the bottle neck effect, since we know that LTM is very large capacity, but the WM is only 7+/-2. So if there are too many links activated then they get stuck and we cannot retrieve a certain detail.

Also when we talk about retrieval of information from LTM we have two kinds:
- Recognition (such as when we are asked to respond multiple choice questions), and

- Recall ( such as when we are asked to respond a question, or we have to write a short essay on a given topic).

In this process of course we do lots of top-down processing.

Sometimes we cluster the information that is linked to a concept and we develop an abstract description; a prototype. When we encounter a new information with a quick top-down processing we use that prototype (which at times is a stereotype-- often a prototype with a negative connotation ). This use of information in a block (using the stereotype) gives space to bias in judgment. We will learn more in the next part when we learn about schema and scripts.

Metacognition

What is your knowledge about your memory processes? Do you think about your thinking? Do you control your cognitive preocesses?

Metacognition is the "contemplative" process about your thinking.

Remember Alan Baddeley's working memory model?

Yes, that one with the Visuospatial Sketch Pad, Phonological Loop, Episodic Buffer, and the most important (form the point of view of metacognition) Central Executive. That CEO of your working memory uses the exact same processes as they are used in the metacognitive processes. Decision on planning and controlling our thinking.

Metamemory on the other hand is our knowledge and control of memory.

If we study a list of items that we have to remember we will be pretty accurate about how much and which items we will remember. Another things will be if we have to predict how much we will remember. Our estimates will be higher than our later performance, and that is called overconfidence. Remember Pollyana effect? If we like to remember the old good times and only the positive happenings, well, we also overpredict the abilities for the future. That is why students believe they will get As in their future performance and they are completey surprised to find out that they did not do such a great job as they thought they did :-(

You will find a nice explanation about metacognition on Professor Tom Shuell's web page (he was my teacher :-) at SUNY at Buffalo).

Some good tool for teachers to use in class on the NCREL web.

Tip-of-the-tongue
Of course you know it...is there... on that page on the left, by the middle of the page...

The knowledge may be available in your LTM but it is not accessible, or not at the moment. You know that you know but cannot access in that particular moment. That is why TOT is related to metacognition.

If you think that you understand what metacognition, metamemory, and TOT means then we talk about metacomprehension. if you have any doubt, then it would be good to take a pretest, so you can check yourself by looking in our text and matching it with what you stated in that pretest. Again, remember that deep processing (personal, meaningful, elaborate) will improve your metacomprehension, and in consequence the performance.