Schema as an Active Recognition Device | Experiment

Schema as an Active Recognition Device | Experiment Written report of a cognitive psychology experiment. Schemas are integrated chunks of knowledge stored in memory allowing us to form expectations and make sense of the world. Rumelhart and Norman (1988) described schemas as having variables or slots where schemas vary in the amount of information they contain and overlap to relate together to form systems. For example, a schema for a picnic may be part of a larger system of schemas including ‘meals’, ‘outings’, and ‘parties’ (Gross, 1996). Therefore, suggesting schemas to be active recognition devices where we try to make sense of ambiguous and unfamiliar information in terms of our existing knowledge and understanding. Bartlett (1932) argued that we rely on schemas as well as content to remember stories. Based on his findings of participants recalling a story â€Å"The War of the Ghosts† from a different culture, Bartlett (1932) found that distortions increased over successive recalls and most of these reflected the participants’ attempts to make the story more like a story from their own culture. Changes from the original story included rationalisations, which made the story more coherent as the story was shortened and phrases changed to be more similar to their own language, participants failed to recall unfamiliar details such as the ghosts, and they elaborated certain content and altered its importance (Bartlett, 1932). Therefore, the changes made the story easier to remember. Bartlett (1932) concluded that the changes to the story on recall showed that the participants were actively reconstructing the story to fit their existing schemas and that schemas affect retrieval rather th an encoding or storage. Other evidence suggested schemas influence comprehension and retrieval. For instance, Bransford and Johnson (1972) argued that schemas often influence comprehension processes rather than retrieval. Presenting participants with a passage in which it was hard to determine which schemas were relevant Bransford and Johnson (1972) found that participants who heard the passage without a title recalled an average of only 2.8 idea units compared to the participants who were given the title who recalled an average of 5.8 idea units. Bransford and Johnsons (1972) study show that the title acted as a useful retrieval cue. Anderson and Pichert’s (1978) research showed that a person’s perspective could guide retrieval of information. For instance, Anderson and Pichert (1978) asked participants to read a story about two boys playing in a house from one of two perspectives, that of a home-buyer or that of a burglar and to write as many of the stories detail they could recall. The participants asked to recall the story again but with half of the participants in the home-buyer condition recalling the story from the perspective of a burglar and half of the participants in the burglar condition to recall the story from the home-buyer perspective. Anderson and Pichert (1978) found that people recalled new information following the change of schema. Anderson and Picherts (1978) findings suggested that schemas play a critical role for readers in selectively attending to elements of a passage that is significant for recall. Therefore, this study aims to replicate the Anderson and Pichert (1978) stud y to see if there would be a significant difference in the recall for participants who changed schema compared to the recall of the participants who did not change schema. Participants: Purposive sampling selected a sample of 40 participants: 20 males and 20 females, age range of 20 to 25 for males and 20 to 26 for females, mean ages 20.5 and 32.7 years respectively. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups; home-buyer schema group and the burglar schema group. Design: The study used a repeated measures design, with two conditions: condition A (no change schema) and condition B (changed schema). The IV being the number of story details recalled correctly and the DV measured was recall accuracy for the change in schema perspective. Controlling for order effects, half of the participants of each group were randomly assigning to condition A and half to condition B for the second recall task. Materials: The materials used were the story used in the original study by Anderson and Pichert (1978) about two boys who played truant from school and spent the day at the home of one of the boys because no one was home that day. The story contained many details, of which some were expected to be more salient for a person with a home-buyer schema, such as attractive grounds, leaking roof, and damp basement; and other details more salient for a person with a burglar schema, such as valuable coin collection, nobody home on Thursdays, and an expensive TV. Part B of the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (PVLT) (Laufer and Nation, 1995) was the ‘filler’ task used before the first recall of the story. Before instructions for the second recall participants were asked to count backwards from 99 until asked to stop as a ‘filler’ task before the second recall, with the stopping cut off point was 30. Procedure: The participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group was told to imagine that they were looking for a house to buy (‘home-buyer’ schema group). The other group was told to imagine that they were burglars looking for a house to break into (‘burglar’ schema group). Working with one group at a time, participants were given a story to read about two boys who played truant from school and spent the day at the home of one of the boys because no-one was home that day, and were given two minutes to read the story. Next, the participants were instructed, to complete the (PVLT) test for twelve minutes. When the twelve minutes were up the participants were told to stop the test and to write down as many of the details of the story they could recall. When the participants had completed the first recall task, they were instructed to count backwards from 99 until told to stop. The participants were asked to stop counting at the count of 30, and then han ded envelopes containing standardised instructions for the next stage of the study. Half the participants received instructions asking them to recall the story a second time from the same perspective, the other half of the participants were given instructions asking them to recall the story a second time from the other perspective. For example, half of the participants who had imagined they were home-buyers were asked to imagine they were burglars (the other half kept imagining being home-buyers), and half of those who had imagined they were burglars were asked to imagine they were home-buyers (the other half kept imagining being burglars). Once participants had read the instructions, they were asked to write down as many details of the story they could recall for a second time. When the second recall task was completed, debriefing took place and the participants were thanked for their participation. This standardised procedure was used for both groups. Ethical considerations: For ethical reasons the following steps were taken Firstly, during gaining consent before the participants’ participated in the study it was explained that the true nature of the study would not be explained until the debriefing after all measures were taken. However, the participants were reassured that their participation will be kept anonymous and that the study was not a test of their intelligence or mental abilities and that they were free to withdraw at any time during the study. Finally debriefing at the end of the study took place informing the participants of the true nature of the study, and that they could withdraw from the study. The debriefing also ensured that the participants suffered no distress during the study. Recall results were collected for the first and second recall tasks and the details recalled which related to the schema perspectives were recorded. Mean scores were calculated for the correct recall of schema related details from the first recall task (table 1). The data was analysed with the anaylsis of variance (ANOVA) showing that there was a significant effect for the number of story details recalled by the participants with different schemas F = 4.49, p The data was analysed with the analysis of variance (ANOVA) (table 3) showing a significant main effect of changing interaction F = 4.3, p Schema theory research has assumed that explicit thought about a schemas topic or an encounter with relevant information can activate a schema. Bransford and Johnson (1972) argued that schemas often influence comprehension processes rather than retrieval where Anderson and Pichert (1978) argued that schemas influence the retrieval of information. The aim of this study was to replicate Anderson and Pichert’s (1978) study, claiming that people store information when reading a passage, which they fail to produce when recalling the passage after changing schemas. This study was a replication of Anderson and Pichert’s (1978) study which predicted that participants who changed schemas would recall more information related to the ‘new’ schema than ‘new’ information for their original schema. An anaylsis of variance (ANOVA) statistical test showed a significant effect if the type of recall presented, showing that the participants who changed schemas re called more additional information which was previously unrecalled than the participants who did not change schemas. These findings supported Anderson and Pichert’s (1978) claims that correct recall resulting from the retrieval of knowledge are strongly influenced by the perspective taken during perception and cognition of the retrieved information. It has been show, that schemas provided after learning can affect recall. For example, when participants are given an additional perspective at test (e.g. home-buyer) may use this perspective as a retrieval cue and remember additional information (e.g. leaky roof) (Anderson and Pichert, 1978). Besides increasing correct recall, use of schemas post encoding may also lead to bias and memory errors. For example new information learned after the fact can activate a schema which participants then use to reconstruct the original events. Lotus and Palmer (1974) demonstrated this phenomenon in their classic study that questioned participants about a slide show they had just seen. One question asked how fast the cars were going when they â€Å"hit† or â€Å"smashed† into each other. One week later, those whose question read smashed were more likely to report seeing broken glass. Post encoding use of schema research has focused on correct recall (e.g. Anderson and Pichert, 1978) or on memory distortions resulting from post event information, which strongly implied the biased memory. This study controlled confounding variables by testing the participants in two separate groups and getting them to carry out a ‘filler’ task between first and second recall. In addition, for each group half the participants were assigned to the no change schema condition and the other half assigned to the changed schema condition for the second recall task to control for order effects. The participants were deceived of the true nature of the study to control for participants expectancies, to ensure that schema change was the only variable manipulated while all other variables are held constant so as not to affect the results. In summary the findings of this study showed, there to be a significant difference in the recall of additional information for the changed schema than for the additional information recalled for the original schema compared to the additional information recalled by the no change schema group. Showing that schemas are active recognition devices and play a critical role in reading where readers selectively attend to details of a passage that is significant to recall and that schemas strongly influence our retrieval of information. As the study used undergraduate students, who have plenty of experience in reading for text from different perspectives future research would benefit from looking at how schema change influences recall when reading from a studying perspective or reading from an entertainment perspective in primary school children. References Anderson, R.C. and Pichert, J.W. (1978) ‘Recalling of Previously Unrecallable Information Following a Shift in Perspective’. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 17: 1-12. Bartlett, F.C. (1932) Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bransford, J.D. and Johnson, M.K. (1972) ‘Contextual Prerequisites for Understanding: Some Investigations of Comprehension and Recall’, Journal of Verbal Language and Verbal Behavior, 11: 717-726. Gross, R. (1996) (3rd Ed.). Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour. London: Hodder Stoughton. Laufer, B. and Nation, P. (1995) ‘Vocabulary Size and Use: Lexical Richness in L2 Written Production’, Applied Linguistics, 16: 307-322. Lotus, E.F. and Palmer, J.C. (1974) ‘Reconstruction of Automobile Destruction: An Example of the Interaction between Language and Memory’, Journal of Verbal Language and Verbal Behavior, 13: 585-589. Rumelhart, D.E. and Norman, D.A. (1988) ‘Representation in memory’, In R.C. Atkinson, R.J. Herrstein, G. Lindzey, and R.D. Luce. (2nd Ed.) Steven’s Handbook of Experimental Psychology. New York: John Wiley and Son: 511-587.

Why Death Is Better Than Life in Prison?

Life in prison. When you look at the death penalty system in action, you realize that the only purpose it serves is retribution or revenge, it is seriously (and intrinsically) flawed in application and that there is a serious and continuing risk of executing innocent people. And, it costs much more than life in prison. Here are some facts about the death penalty system. While these refer to the system in the United States, similar things would apply to other nations as well. 130 people on death rows have been released with proof that they were wrongfully convicted. DNA, available in less than 10% of all homicides, can’t guarantee we won’t execute innocent people. If someone is convicted and later found innocent you can release him from prison, but not from the grave. The death penalty doesn't prevent others from committing murder. No reliable study shows the death penalty deters others. Homicide rates are higher in states and regions that have it than in those that don’t. Life without parole, on the books in 48 states, also prevents reoffending. It means what it says, and spending 23 of 24 hours a day locked in a tiny cell is not a picnic. Life without parole costs less than the death penalty. The death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison, mostly because of the upfront costs of legal process which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people. (upfront=before and during the initial trial) The death penalty isn't reserved for the worst crimes, but for defendants with the worst lawyers. It doesn't apply to people with money. When is the last time a wealthy person was on death row, let alone executed? Families of murder victims are not unanimous about the death penalty. However, even families who have supported the death penalty in principal have testified that the drawn-out death penalty process is painful for them and that life without parole is an appropriate alternative. Problems with speeding up the process. Over 50 of the innocent people released from death row had already served over a decade. Speed up the process and we will execute innocent people. Sources: Death Penalty Information Center, www. deathpenaltyinfo. org, for stats on executions, reports on costs, deterrence studies, links to FBI crime stats and links to testimony (at state legislatures) of victims' family members.

Generality and Reality

To answer the aforementioned questions, the paper primarily employs a qualitative approach, although a degree of quantitative data will also be utilized. From a qualitative perspective, the paper will draw heavily on case studies and historical and contemporary examples in order to take a comparative approach in explaining and identifying the effect that refugees have on the nations that receive them. Particularly, the case study approach and the identification of the relevance to the current crisis in Lebanon and Jordan will allow for the exploration of why specific positive or negative effects may be magnified in some cases and not others. Solely focusing on discussions of this issue can cause the reader to be bogged down by generalities that, although often making intuitive sense, lack historical evidence. For example, those who might argue that an influx of refugees has a negative effect on host countries might say â€Å"refugees cause overcrowding in the host country.† While this explanation may be intuitive, it is also simplistic. I hope to examine past case studies and research in order to bridge the gap between generality and reality in order to qualitatively explain; if this is a valid point on the negative side of the argument the manner in which overcrowding manifests itself, how that affects the broader economy, whether that argument has relevance for the Lebanese case, and the potential implications for policy. These conceptual, qualitative explanations will also require a degree of quantitative backing as well. As the paper is discussing economic impact, quantitative metrics for example, GDP figures, money spent on infrastructure development, wage data, and employment data will be employed to give more clarity and evidence to conceptual claims. This quantitative component—although not at the level of sophistication of regression analysis and not primary data in nature—will be useful in both the historical and contemporary parts of the paperLiterature reviewThe modern world is one of constant change and upheaval. For many in the Global North, this change is characterized by dramatic advances in technology and progressive policy reforms. But for still many more, the story is a markedly different tale of survival. Today, the world is confronting its worst refugee crisis since World War II. Facing political turmoil, violence, and war, over 60 million people have fled their homes in search of safety and with hope for a better future (Graham 2015). As these refugees pour over the borders of Iraq and Syria, pile onto smuggling boats in Libya and Burma, and flee to neighboring lands from Yemen and Somalia, they have captured the world's attention. Currently, much of the popular and academic discourse has addressed the moral and humanitarian components of refugee crises. Accordingly, whether due to mounting international awareness and pressure or humanitarian compassion; many developed regions, such as the United States and the European Union, have boosted their capacity to receive refugees. The human rights element inherent to refugee crises is relatively more clear-cut. But a broader academic discussion has been developing around the following question: what are some of the economic effects; both positive and negative, of the sudden influx of refugees on host countries? These economic questions are particularly important to a country like Lebanon, where Syrian refugees now make up over 20 percent of the population (Richard, 2014). Before these effects can be analyzed, it is important to distinguish refugees from other types of migrants. The United Nations, via the 1951 Refugee Convention, defines a refugee as someone who â€Å"owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country. The key point here is movement out of fear and necessity, rather than, say, economic opportunity. This definition has also been expanded by many to include violence and war, famine, and natural disaster. Scholars have further delineated the difference between refugees and migrants by looking at size of the group and nation of origin. In particular, refugees are noted for typically moving as a part of a larger group of people rather than as individuals; they also generally come from relatively less developed economies. With these definitions in mind, the paper now turns to examining the economic impact that refugees have on host countries. Positive economic impacts Refugees can often bring positive economic impacts to the countries that receive them. The existing literature discusses a number of ways in which this can occur, five of which are discussed below. First, provisions designed and implemented explicitly for refugees can often lead to broader utilization by the host country's population. Specifically, schools built explicitly for refugee children have served local students, who might not otherwise go to school at all as well. The presence of refugees ensures enrollment stability, thereby helping to keep the schools open and functioning for all children; this in turn encourages continued investment and can improve the educational infrastructure of the country and boost long-term economic productivity. Aside from educational institutions, governments and international aid organizations may, because of the crisis, often invest in other infrastructure developments; such as medical clinics, housing developments, and roads to access refugee camps that can be maintained and used for the population at large when the refugee crisis subsides. These temporary structures—originally built to support refugees—can persist beyond the crisis and bolster the host country's infrastructure and development prospects. In this sense, these short-term negative economic shocks that refugees provide to the system can give way to a longer-term positive economic outcome. Second, it is also important to consider the demographics of the refugees themselves.Many of the factors that drive refugee crises; especially war or terrorism, are relatively indiscriminate to class. Because of this, refugees can often come from skilled and educated backgrounds. ResultsMost studies of the effect of unskilled migration on the wages of unskilled workers find only small negative effects. The early literature on the subject typically concluded that a 1 percent increase in the immigrant share in the population causes no decline in wages or a decline of 0.1 percent. These area studies that attempted to exploit the variation in migration incidence across countries, or more typically across localities in Lebanon and Jordan. As is most clearly seen in developing countries receiving large numbers of refugees, such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, the concentration of refugees in specific localities can â€Å"crowd out† public services such as schools and hospitals, or cause the transport infrastructure to become congested. In advanced countries, where the infrastructure is well developed and the refugee inflow is much smaller relative to the native populations, these effects can be observed in specific neighborhoods, typically in low-income areas.Mitigating these concentration effects while at the same time avoiding the temptation of encouraging refugees to settle in distant locations where it is difficult to find work and people do not want to stay poses a genuine challenge to policy-makers. At the same time, it is clear that unskilled migrants can reduce the price of many market services and also reduce the cost of many public services like unskilled migrants help cleaning streets An important benefit that natives; whether they are skilled or unskilled derive from unskilled refugees, and one that until recently was largely neglected, is that they help reduce the prices of non-traded goods and services that natives use intensively. Researchers have proved that the surge in immigration in the Jordan and Lebanon since 2011 may have reduced the prices of these services by about 10 percent. By contrast, as discussed further below, the arrival of refugees can put upward pressure on housing in localities where they are concentrated. This can make low-income housing less affordable even as it represents a net wealth gain for the native population that owns housing. Since many advanced countries, most notably in Europe, experience high and persistent unemployment over many years, even when growth is near or above long-term potential, the worry that increased immigration will simply make the structural or cyclical unemployment problem worse resonates widely. Consider an economy where collective bargaining predominates in some â€Å"rigid† sectors and where the labor market is very flexible in others. They find that migration can increase unemployment in the rigid sector, while having a relatively small negative effect on wages in the rigid sector, and reduce the wage in the flexible sector where unemployment remains low by definition. In the long run, these effects tend to dissipate as investment responds. Thus, the model that assumes perfect labor markets tends to overestimate the impact of migration on average wages and to underestimate the effect on unemployment; meta-analysis of studies examining the effect of immigration on unemployment in developed countries found out that in general, an increase in immigration by 1 percent of the population leads to an increase in unemployment of no more than 0.3 percent. In contrast, studies of the Lebanon and Jordan labor markets, which are among the most flexible, have found no significant effect of immigration on employment opportunities for native workers; including low-skilled native workers. They found that, among less-educated workers, those born in the two countries tend to have jobs in manufacturing or mining, while migrants tend to have jobs in personal services and agriculture, providing an explanation for why low-skilled migration has a limited impact on employment. In fact, the share of migrants among the less-educated is strongly correlated with the extent of Jordan born worker specialization in communication tasks. In states with a heavy concentration of less-educated migrants, Lebanon born workers have shifted toward more communication-intensive occupations. Those jobs pay higher wages than manual jobs, and so such a mechanism has stimulated the productivity of workers born in the two counties and generated new employment opportunities.

Food Palatability And The Reward Value Of Nutrients

Abstract: It was originally thought that both the palatability and the reward value of nutrients are processed in the same brain region. However, a study conducted by Wassum et al. (2009) provides evidence that this is not the case. They found that the nucleus accumbens and the ventral pallidum are responsible for processing food palatability while the basolateral amygdala is involved in assigning incentive value of food rewards. Furthermore, these processes are interrupted when naloxone is administered into their associated regions. This research is significant because it could provide insight into why subjects continue to engage in certain behaviors despite them no longer being palatable or enjoyable, such as in drug addiction, and could provide the basis for more effective treatments of addiction. Introduction: Food palatability refers to an organism s subjective experience of food and can be either positive or aversive. As a result, this is generally associated with reward liking. The reward value attributed to obtaining different foods plays a role in determining an organism s actions, and is thus referred to as reward wanting. These liking and wanting pathways were previously thought to be processed by similar, linked, neural structures including the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum and were thought to go hand in hand (Smith Berridge, 2007). However, many researchers now suggests otherwise. Studies still indicate that the nucleus accumbens shellShow MoreRelatedBrand Preference of Gym Enthusiasts on Energy Drink Products14209 Words   |  57 Pagesreveals that Apple has relatively high strong brand equity and brand identity than Samsung. According Aaker (1991, p. 270) a strong brand build on the four component of brand equity and they provide value to the customer b y enhancing satisfaction and confidence in purchase decision and also provide value to the firm by enhancing competitive advantage ,price (margin). Students of Malardalen Hogskolan choose Smartphone on the basis of its brand. The brand loyalty is high among Apple users; hence appleRead MorePurpose of Evaluating Customer Service Policies26269 Words   |  106 Pagesfor giving us the permission to reprint some of the pictures and /or providing us with information for completing the curriculum support package: The Association of National Tourist Office Representatives in Hong Kong, ANTOR (HK) Centre for Food Safety, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ii Introduction to Hospitality Introduction A set of curriculum support package of tourism and hospitality learning and teaching materials is being developed by the Personal, Social and HumanitiesRead MorePurpose of Evaluating Customer Service Policies26276 Words   |  106 Pagesfor giving us the permission to reprint some of the pictures and /or providing us with information for completing the curriculum support package: The Association of National Tourist Office Representatives in Hong Kong, ANTOR (HK) Centre for Food Safety, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ii Introduction to Hospitality Introduction A set of curriculum support package of tourism and hospitality learning and teaching materials is being developed by the Personal, Social and Humanities Education