Schema theory

The schema theory is how we organized knowledge in our mind according to it’s importance, in our mind. However this many not always be as helpful as we think. It is very easy to distortion, because Schemata influences so unique to each individual. For instance in Ronald cottons case study, Jennifer’s memory changed it fit the most possible picture in steed of the actual picture. Schema is designed to make things easy for you, so if things get complicated our mind/schema will change it to make it easy. You could say, that every time you retrieve a memory, you put it back slightly altered. When ask a question, which, to give the answer your memory is needed, the words used in the question can have a large affect on the way you remember thing, like in the Loftus & Palmer, 1974 study simply changing the word smash in steed of hit made people think/remember the hit as being harder than it was, which furthermore when asked the question “did you see broken glass” would got them thinking “well it was a hard collision so there should be broken glass” which would lead them to the thought “there was broken glass.” if we didn't have schema it would almost impossible to remember, so in a way it is helpful, but more often then not schema will change the way we see things.