The representational and processing characteristics of scripts

Abstract

Memory schemata may influence the storage of information in memory either by enabling information relevant to the instantiated schema to be more easily comprehended or by selectively allocating processing resources to information that fits the schema. In the experiment reported here, decision times, recall performance, and recognition performance were either typical or atypical of the scripts in which they were embedded. It was found that atypical actions were processed for longer periods of time than were typical actions and that recall performance for the two types of actions was the same. However, recognition of the typical actions was inferior to recognition performance on atypical actions, probably because subjects had difficulty discriminating between those typical actions that were presented and those that were inferred. It was concluded that memory schemata may affect the storage of information both by providing an ideational scaffolding for new information relevant to the schema and by influencing the degree of processing that relevant vs. nonrelevant information receives. © 1981, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.