Brewer and Treyens (1981)

Brewer and Treyens (1981)

1. Aim: to see if memory of a room is influenced by schemata.

2. Participant: 30 Uni Students.

3. Method:

   • Students were asked to wait in the psychologists office until the psychologist was ready for them
   • Office contained many normal things associated with the office schema, but some things were purposely not in the room, and some things not associated with the office schema were also placed there.
   • After a while the psychologist came and took them out of the room, and they were asked to recall everything they had seen in the office.

4. Findings:

   • The participants successfully recalled all the things in the room associated with the office schema.
   • The pps also recalled things associated with the office schema that weren't actually there.
   • The unexpected items (not associated with the office schema) were not recalled.
   • However, a skull that was in the office was recalled. Because it was so unusual and out of place that the pps took specific note of it unconsciously being there.