Limitations of Memory

Schema theory pertains to a number of interrelates ideas, proposed over the years by several theorists to account for the influence of stored knowledge on current information-processing and behavior. According to the works of theorists, schema performs many interrelated functions such as organizing the information in memory, increasing information-processing efficiency, regulating behavior, enabling the generation of expectations about objects. Schemas are relatively stable and usually very resistant to change thus ensuring continuity in the ways we process information and the ways we act. But schemas can also lead to distortions and mistakes when the settings are unfamiliar and thus require novel approaches, or when the wrong schema becomes activated.  

Barlett's experiment on the effect of schemas on memory, conducted in 1932, shows how schema could distort the memory. In his experiment, Barlett asked his English participants to read The War of the Ghosts, a Native American folk tale. Then Barlett let the participants to reproduce the story that they've read. With successive reproduction, the story became increasingly shorter and distortions were made in the direction of making the story more understandable from within the participant’s experiences and cultural background. For example, activities, which were culturally unfamiliar such as hunting seals, were changed into more familiar ones such as fishing.  

Loftus and Palmer’s experiment on the schemas and eyewitness testimony, conducted in 1974, shows how one particular word can manipulate people’s memory. In the experiment, Loftus and Palmer made participants watch a video of a car crash. Then, they asked the participants about the speed of the cars in the accident. The stronger meaning the word contained, the participants answered with faster speed. For example, when the critical question asked the participants of how fast the car smashed into another car, the average responded rate was 40.8 mph, whereas when the question asked how fast the car contacted to another car, the average rate was 31.8 mph. This shows that people perceive the same speed-ran car in different speed based on the words that describe the event. 

The Ronald Cotton legal case, explored in the post below, also shows how schema can severely distort one’s memory and led an innocent person to spend much part of his life in prison. The wrong schema became activated – Jennifer thought she had to choose the rapist among the pictures that were shown to her, and ended up choosing a wrong guy although he looked quite similar to the real rapist. 


As seen schema can be both helpful – it can help people to think efficiently and behave organized, and harmful - it can manipulate one's memory very easily. But at the same time it can also distort memories in such a way that that person cannot even realize that his/her memory has been distorted. Memory is indeed very vulnerable when not crafted well into one’s mind. But as far as people effectively get advantage of schemas, then it would definitely benefit them.