EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

(Ben Green) #1
Chapter 6, page 70

How Consistent Schemas Affect Learning

Consistent schemas facilitate learning. People learn more when they have consistent schemas
stored in long-term memory than when they do not (P. T. Wilson & Anderson, 1986). People also learn
more when they activate those schemas by retrieving consistent schemas into short-term memory than
when they fail to activate those schemas.

Table 6.3:
Two passages on which most Americans lack relevant schemas

Passage A Passage B
Logistic regression applies maximum likelihood
estimation after transforming the dependent variable
into a logit variable (the natural log of the odds of
the dependent occurring or not). In this way, logistic
regression estimates the probability of a certain
event occurring. Note that logistic regression
calculates changes in the log odds of the dependent,
not changes in the dependent itself as OLS
regression does.
Logistic regression can be used to predict a
dependent variable on the basis of continuous and/or
categorical independents and to determine the
percent of variance in the dependent variable
explained by the independents, to rank the relative
importance of independents, to assess interaction
effects and to understand the impact of covariate
control variables.
(Garson, 2008)


A dogged 82 on a green pitch by Mark Taylor,
the opening batsman, put Australia on top at the
end of the first day of the first Test match against
New Zealand here yesterday.
Taylor received solid support from Justin
Langer, who was 63 not out, and finished the day in
partnership with Steve Waugh, who was on 33.
Taylor had not passed 50 in a Test since he scored
a century against India in January 1992.
Martin Crowe, the New Zealand captain,
quickly found that his four-man fast attack bowled
a poor line. Boon was out for 15, flashing at a wide
ball in Michael Owens' first over to give the
wicketkeeper a diving catch.
Taylor began scratchily, and it was a surprise
when he miscued a pull off Danny Morrison to give
a catch to Martin Crowe. In nearly five hours at the
crease he hit six fours.
When Mark Waugh was caught behind
from the off spinner, Dipak Patel, for 13, New
Zealand had a glimmer of hope at 170 for three, but
Steve Waugh joined the solid left-hander, Langer,
and unleashed some fierce drives as he overcame a
shaky start. Ref xx.

Lacking consistent schemas. When people lack relevant schemas to help them understand new
information, they have difficulty understanding or recalling new material. Read the two examples in Table
6.3. Imagine how much you would recall if you were asked to write down everything you could remember
from a single reading in two hours. Unless you have at some time in your life learned schemas for
advanced statistics (for Passage A) or cricket (for Passage B), you would probably recall little of either
passage. Without such schemas, it is very difficult to make sense of the new information.
In one famous study, cognitive psychologists asked undergraduates with high baseball knowledge
and undergraduates with low baseball knowledge to read reports of what had happened in a baseball
game. High-knowledge students recalled much more than low-knowledge students did (Chiesi, Spilich, &
Voss, 1979).
It is important for teachers to realize that their students often lack relevant schemas, even when
teachers think that the students should in fact have relevant schemas. For instance, in one study, sixth
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