IB PSYCHOLOGY

REPLICATION OF BRANSFORD AND JOHNSON (1972) STUDY

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXT ON RECALL OF

INFORMATION

INTERNAL ASSESSMENT

HL
A: Introduction

The Schema Theory has been used in the field of psychology and cognition to explain
human behaviour and thinking processes for a long time.A schema can be defined as ‘an
organised unit of knowledge for a subject or event.’ Jean Piaget is credited as the first
psychologist to create a cognitive development theory which included schemas. It stated that
schemas are dynamic and so develop and change based on new information received,
thereby supporting the notion of plasticity in development. Plasticity refers to the brain’s
ability to change and adapt in reaction to the environment and through experience’. This new
information would be assimilated (the cognitive process of making new information fit in with
your existing understanding of the world) into current schemas or accommodated (the
process of creating a new schema in order to make sense of new information when
assimilation is not possible). However, Frederick Bartlett, a British psychologist was the first
to delve into schemas in the realm of procedural memory. His research stated that
movement involved in carrying out activities like sports was not a matter of
stimulus-response and instead reliant on the framework (schema) created with the help of
past experiences. Thus, schema was seen as a theory of how humans process information
received and relate it to their preconceived frameworks of knowledge from then on.
Schemas are mental representations that organise knowledge, expectations and beliefs.
This is important because it suggests that memory is not perfect. If there is any missing
information, the brain fills in the blanks based on existing schema. This makes our memory
vulnerable to change by these schemas, thus helping explain the phenomenon of
reconstructive memories and false memories during recollection. This influence of schema
extends to our comprehension of information received. When we’re exposed to new
information we automatically relate it to our existing knowledge (schemas) which should
show an improvement in comprehension. Comprehension can be defined as the ability to
understand something, which can be tested through recall. This was further researched in
Bransford and Johnson’s 1972 experiment into comprehension and recall.
The original study aimed to determine if schema activation would result in a better
understanding and recall of an ambiguous text. They hypothesised that the condition that
received the appropriate context of the image would be able to comprehend the passage
easily and hence, would be able to recall it relatively well. The sample of 50 male and
female high school student participants were allocated to one of five conditions; the No
Context (1) group wherein participants heard a passage with no additional information, the
Context After group wherein participants were shown the appropriate visual aid as context
after hearing it, the Context Before group wherein participants were shown the appropriate
visual aid as context before hearing it, the Partial Context group wherein the participants
were shown a visual aid as context before hearing the passage, however the elements of the
image were rearranged (seen in appendix ii). Lastly, the No Context (2) group wherein
participants heard the passage twice but received no other context. All conditions were told
they were going to hear a tape-recorded passage and were asked to attempt to comprehend
and remember it. After the acquisition, each condition was given a 2 minute delay before
they were to rate their comprehension of the passage on a 1-7 scale, with 1 being difficult to
comprehend, 4 being moderate and 7 being very easy. Immediately after, they were
instructed to recall the passage as accurately as possible for a duration of 7 minutes.The
researchers had decided on "idea units" before the experiment and each participants' summary
was independently scored by two judges, using the list of 18 idea units.The results showed that
the Context Before group that was given the appropriate context before they listened to the
passage had significantly better recall and comprehension than the other four groups.
Therefore, to conclude, schemas help participants encode new information by making it
possible to interpret information received while making it easier to recall as well. As the
research by Bransford and Johnson indicates, our memory improves dramatically when we
can make connections between what we already know and new information. Showing that
information that is consistent with our existing schemas will be easier to store in memory.

The replicated study was conducted with the aim to investigate the effect of visual contextual
information on recall of auditory information provided in the form of a passage. I chose to
replicate this study with this aim because understanding how memory and comprehension
works can be very helpful in the field of Education. Schema theory can help explain how and
why certain students are able to comprehend and recall information learnt better, relative to
others and can be utilised to design better reading programs and improve comprehension
skills among students. I hoped to investigate this within the context of IB students to better
understand my and my peers’ memory processes. However, I made some modifications in
the original study when replicating it. This includes cutting down the conditions from five to
three, Context Before, Context After and No Context (1). This was done to take into account
the smaller sample size present amongst our IBDP group (21 in place of 50 participants) and
to be able to draw conclusions in a succinct form. The Dependent Variables investigated
were also narrowed down from the number of words recalled and level of comprehension
based on the 1-7 scale to only the number of words recalled. This is because I found the
participants seemed unclear regarding the scale and made numerous changes before
asking the researchers to neglect the number chosen altogether. I also chose 9 keywords
that memory recall was tested against, in place of the 18 in the study.

The Null Hypothesis : There is no significant difference between participant’s recall of

keywords from auditory information provided when visual context is shown before, after or
not at all.
The Research Hypothesis : Participant’s recall of keywords from auditory information
provided will be significantly greater when visual context is shown before than when it is
shown after or not at all.
B: Exploration

Research design :
Both the original study by Branford and Johnson (1972) as well as the replicated study utilised an
Independent measures design as each group of participants in the study was subjected to only
one design and the participants were randomly allocated into groups by use of a wheel of names.
Three separate groups of 7 participants each were used with random allocation into the groups,
therefore the design was independent measures. This was preferred because its not susceptible
to order effects, as participants only take part in one experimental condition, they cannot
practise/rehearse their responses, they cannot work out the real aim of the study which prevents
the integrity of the study form being compromised, they do not get tired which could act as an
extraneous variable in regards to the audio recording they listen to and must recall. It is also the
same experimental design used in the original study as it was important for me to compare our
findings to the original as accurately as possible.
Sampling method-
Random sampling was used to categorise the participants into the three conditions. Consent
forms were sent out to a target population of 16 to 18 year old boys and girls, living in Singapore,
studying in the same international school and with language proficiency in english. All
participants chosen were ones that had signed and returned the consent forms as and when
instructed. This ensured no chance of researcher bias in selection of participants, a variety of
cultures represented and all genders received equal opportunity. These names were then placed
in a free wheel of names program available online (as seen in appendix iii) and separated into
conditions by random selection.
Participants:
There were a total of 21 participants, 7 participants in each condition. The participants were all
16 to 18 years old, studying in OWIS Singapore, enrolled in the IB program, sighted and
proficient in English. Language proficiency was an important characteristic to ensure the
participants could fully understand the passage provided without any language barriers present.
The minimum age requirement of 16 years old was also an important characteristic to abide by
IB regulations and to ensure participants could consent to the study themselves.

Controls:
The audio recording and the speed at which the recording is played had to be the same for all
three conditions to ensure no extraneous variables change the results gathered. The time given
to participants in each condition to recollect the key words from the recording must also be
uniform, I ensured all participants were given 3 minutes to recall. The time between hearing the
recording to being called back in for recall was 10 minutes for each group and all three conditions
were carried out on the same day in the same time frame to ensure tiredness did not play a part
in results obtained. The seating arrangements of the participants were also adhered to strictly
within each condition. The participant’s education level was at a similar level as seen by the
target population chosen to ensure all participants were familiar with the vernacular employed
within the audio recording of the passage. Participants were also kept away from any interactions
with other group members, both online and in person, within the interval between acquiring
information and recall to prevent any cross talk that could compromise the results.

Materials:
- Informed consent forms (see appendix i)
- Paper on which recollection occurred (see appendix ii)
- Pens
 - Context image (see appendix v.c.)
- Audio recording of passage (see appendix v. a.)
The same context image and audio recording as the original study was taken from youtube and
used in order to keep the confounding variables of the replicated study as close to the original as
possible so that findings could be accurately compared.

Procedure:
● All participants were assembled in one room and placed in their groups. They were
then told to refrain from communicating with those around them, and their
communicative devices were requested till the end of the experiment.
● The first group was then led to a room by a researcher while two volunteers
remained in the first room with the remaining two groups.
● The group was told that the aim of the study was to test the comprehension of a story
that we recorded and played back for them. They were requested to take a seat at
tables where the recall sheets had been laid out, faced down with a pen and were
told to remain silent while the recording played. (see appendix iii. for detailed
instructions given).
● After the recording played, they were given 1 minute to fill out the comprehension
scale on the recall sheet. The group was then led outside, back to the first room.
● The process repeats with the other two groups, though the details differ based on
their condition.
● Each group was called back into the room 10 minutes after they had filled out the
comprehension scale and participants were instructed to sit in the same seats as
before. They were then given three minutes to recall all the information they could
recall as well as the topic they thought it had been on.
● At the end of all three conditions, the researchers collected the papers with the data
and the groups assembled in the first room where they were then debriefed by all
three researchers and thanked for their time.

Ethics:
There were standardised consent forms drawn up and sent to all students in the IB program at
One World International School in an attempt to follow ethical guidelines and ensure all
participants were aware of what would happen. Though there was slight deception regarding the
aim of the study, a thorough debrief (see appendix iv.) was conducted at the end wherein all
information regarding the study was divulged and participants were given the choice to withdraw
their results. All identities and personal information remained and continues to remain
confidential. Participants were also provided with all three researcher’s email addresses for
chance of communication regarding the results obtained and any queries regarding the
experiment itself.
C: Analysis

Raw Results were recorded in a table (as seen in appendix vi.a.)

No Context Context Before Context After

mean 3.666666667 3.333333333 4.333333333

mode 3 1 1
median 3 1 4
std. 2.83
deviation 2.55 3.91

The mean is not a highly reliable measure of central tendency as the data includes outliers. In
this case, the median would be more accurate in providing the average. This can be seen in the
results for the Context After condition, where the median of words recalled in total is 4. It is likely
that this data is skewed in a positive direction as the mean is higher than the median by 2 units.

As seen by the data graph, the topic of balloons was a keyword that was mentioned the most
throughout the experiment by two of the three conditions. However, the Context After group had
sound as their most frequently mentioned keyword. These differences show that there are some
discrepancies in the data collected when compared with the original Bransford and Johnson
(1972) study.

Raw results were recorded in a table (as seen in appendix vi.b.)

No Context Context before Context After

4.42857142
mean 9 2.571428571 4.285714286
mode 7 2 3
median 4 2 4
STD.
DEV 2.07 1.81 1.80

This shows the averages and standard deviation of keywords as recalled by participants. As the
medians and means are similar in all their conditions, it can be seen that there weren’t any
outliers and the data acquired is reliable.
By the averages, we can see that both the Null hypothesis and the Reaction Hypothesis have not
been met through this experiment. With both No context and Context After conditions having an
average of 4 keywords per participant, while Context Before condition has an average of 2
keywords per participant. These findings go against the hypothesis and instead show that
receiving no context and context after the auditory information provided led to an increase in
keywords remembered.

D: Evaluation
The results of the original study support the schema theory and its effect on cognitive processes
like memory recall of verbal information. The context, when provided prior, showed an increased
level of both comprehension and recall. However, in the replicated study this was not shown. The
Schema Theory has a significant amount of research that supports it however, the reasons for
schema-inconsistent information sometimes being recalled still cannot be accounted for. It is
likely that the changes made upon modification of the original study played a part in the skewed
results acquired. There were other variables like the participants being aware of the experiment
prior to partaking in it which hadn't been considered when the experiment was conducted. It is
also possible that other factors like neurodivergence, slow auditory processing and simple
confusion were to blame for the differences in the two experiments.

Another modification made was providing a topic along with the visual aid for context. This topic
was that of balloons. This could explain the disparity in keyword recall for the Context Before
condition, as they were focused only on the word ‘balloon’ and did not pay much attention to the
other words. Although this is congruent with the Schema Theory as it shows schema consistent
information being picked up while schema-inconsistent information is ignored, it wasn’t a
dependent variable being measured and so did not contribute to the results garnered.

The use of an independent measures design for this study was a strength as a repeated
measures design would not be possible as the text cannot be reused and it ensured participant
variability. The study itself was simplistic in theory and easily replicated to an extent, as the
results obtained were not similar to the original. The task is one that is rather artificial, despite
lacking ecological validity it has high internal validity due to its control which helps determine a
cause-and-effect relationship between the schema and recall of information.

Thus, the results show that having context prior to information received did result in more
schema-consistent information being retained and recalled, while those that received context
after and not at all had no schema to rely on and so recalled more keywords that they would
have otherwise missed. Therefore, both the research hypothesis and the null hypothesis were
rejected as there was a significant difference between the recall of the three conditions. This
shows there is still relation that can be drawn between Schema Theory and recall of information.

Bibliography:

“Bransford and Johnson, 1972 If the Balloons.” Studylib.net, 4 Mar. 2016,

studylib.net/doc/8754740/bransford-and-johnson--1972-if-the-balloons. Accessed 20 Aug.

2023.

Dixon, Travis. “Schema Theory: A Summary | IB Psychology.” IB Psychology, 29 Nov. 2017,

www.themantic-education.com/ibpsych/2017/11/29/schema-theory-a-summary/#:~:text=One
%20way%20 schemas%20can%20i influence,in%20 Bransford%20and%20
Johnson's%20study). Accessed 20 Aug. 2023.

“DP Psychology: Schema Theory.” Thinkib.net, 2015,

www.student.thinkib.net/psychology/page/22792/schema-theory. Accessed 20 Aug. 2023.

Muramoto, Toshiaki. “Text Recall and Text Recognition with and without a Title.” Japanese

Psychological Research, vol. 38, no. 4, 1 Nov. 1996, pp. 240–244,

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1468-5884.1996.tb00029.x#:~:text=Bransford%20an

d%20Johnson%20(1972%2C%201973,than%20subjects%20who%20had%20not.,

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5884.1996.tb00029.x. Accessed 20 Aug. 2023.

‌Pankin, Jeff. Schema Theory. 2013.

“Schema Theory.” Ibpsychmatters.com, 2023, www.ibpsychmatters.com/schema-theory.

Accessed 20 Aug. 2023
Appendices:

i. Consent form -
Letter of Consent,

Dear Participant, we are Grade 11 psychology students who are conducting our psychology IA
experiment. The experiment will revolve around the Schema theory. The following points are the
stipulated terms and conditions for our experiment, should you disagree with any of them you will not
be allowed to participate.

● Participants are required to be 16 years of age or older in order to participate in the

experiment.

● The experiment will take place on the (14th of June, period 1 and 2) participants will be
required to arrive within the first 10 minutes, any later and the experiment will begin without
you.

● All participants' information will be kept confidential and remain anonymous in writing.

● Participants will have the right to withdraw from the experiment at any point in time and their
data will not be used or referred to if they have left during the experiment.

● Participants will not be psychologically or physically harmed throughout the experiment.

● A short debrief will be conducted for all participants once the experiment has ended.

● Once participants have finished the experiment or a participant has withdrawn from the
experiment, no information pertaining to the experiment shall be discussed or shared with
other participants. Unless given explicit permission but the group conducting the experiment.
If you agree with the terms and conditions stated above which apply to the experiment, please sign
below giving your expressed consent to participate in the experiment. Please ensure that you have
given your full name, signature and included the date of signing this from.

Full Name:

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Signature:

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:
—-----------------------------------------------

ii. Recall Sheet

iii. Briefing and Instructions

Today we will be conducting the experiment for our IB Psychology

Internal Assessment.
The aim of the study is to test the comprehension of a story that we
have recorded and will play back to you.
Please take a seat at the tables with a piece of paper on them and remain silent, do not turn
over the paper until instructed.
Please remain silent for this portion of the experiment as
communication with others may affect our results.

GROUP 1 - no context
A test recording will now be played and that will be the start of the experiment. Please do not
communicate with anyone throughout the duration of the experiment.

After the recording-

Please turn over the sheet of paper in front of you. You now have 1 minute to fill out the
scale in front of you.
Your time has elapsed, please stop writing. Thank you for your participation, you will now be
led outside. Please remain silent until we are in the hallway and follow the volunteer we hand
your group over to into the room. Refrain from speaking to any of the other groups about
what you’ve heard here. And please hold on to your sheets of paper. We will call you all back
in around 10 mins. Please stand by for the second half of the experiment.

GROUP TWO - context before

A test recording will now be played and that will be the start of the experiment. Please do not
communicate with anyone throughout the duration of the experiment. The topic of this
recording is that of ‘BALLOONS’.

After the recording-

Please turn over the sheet of paper in front of you. You now have 1 minute to fill out the
scale in front of you.
Your time has elapsed, please stop writing. Thank you for your participation, you will now be
led outside. Please remain silent until we are in the hallway and follow the volunteer we hand
your group over to into the room. Refrain from speaking to any of the other groups about
what you’ve heard here. And please hold on to your sheets of paper. We will call you all back
in 10 minutes. Please stand by for the second half of the experiment.

GROUP THREE - context after

A test recording will now be played and that will be the start of the experiment. Please do not
communicate with anyone throughout the duration of the experiment.

After the recording-

That recording was on the topic of ‘BALLOONS’. Now, please turn over the sheet of paper in
front of you. You now have 1 minute to fill out the scale in front of you.
Your time has elapsed, please stop writing. Thank you for your participation, you will now be
led outside. Please remain silent until we are in the hallway and follow the volunteer we hand
your group over to into the room. Refrain from speaking to any of the other groups about
what you’ve heard here. And please hold on to your sheets of paper. We will call you all back
in 10 minutes. Please stand by for the second half of the experiment.

For second half

Please take a seat at the same tables you were sitting before.

Now we will start a three minute timer and you will use this time to write down all you can
recollect about the recording heard prior on the same sheet of paper. Please add all the
information you can recall as well as what you thought the recording was talking about.

After three mins-

Thank you for participating in our experiment! We do not wish to take too much of your time.
If you could please head outside with the volunteer into the same room as before for your
debriefs.

iv.Debrief

Thank you for your participation in our Internal Assessment. The aim of this
experiment was to test the comprehension of a story when provided with no context versus
context before versus context after.
Group one received no context before we played the recording they heard. In group two, the
context was provided before they listened to the audio.
And finally for group three, the context was provided after the audio.

Our hypothesis was that the group with the context before would have the most
comprehensive recollection and comprehension of the audio while the groups with context
after and then no context would follow.

We will be calculating the findings for each group and our emails are listed on the
board. If you would like to know the conclusion of our experiment, please feel free to
e-mail any of us with your inquiry

Thank you again for your participation in our experiment. Please remember
not to talk about the experiment to other students as this could affect the findings of
Psychology students.

v.Materials Used

a. Recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ-KcBazGuI&ab_channel=TomBernard

b. Transcript

If the balloons popped, the sound wouldn’t be able to carry since everything would be too
far away from the correct floor. A closed window would also prevent the sound from
carrying, since most buildings tend to be well insulated. Since the whole operation
depends on a steady flow of electricity, a break in the middle of the wire would also cause
problems. Of course, the fellow could shout, but the human voice is not loud enough to
carry that far. An additional problem is that a string could break on the instrument. Then
there could be no accompaniment to the message. It is clear that the best situation would
involve less distance. Then there would be fewer potential problems. With face to face
contact, the least number of things could go wrong.

c. Context before and context after image

 d. Partial context image

e. Keywords
Balloons
Insulation
Electricity
Pop
Carry
Sound
Window
Wire
Building

vi. Raw data tables

a. Keywords in total

(grp A) no. of time (grp B) no. of (grp C) no. of

keywords recalled keywords times recalled Keywords times recalled
balloon 9 balloon 12 balloon 8
wires 3 wires 1 wires 1
insulation 3 insulation 1 insulation 4
electricity 2 electricity 1 electricity 4
pop 4 pop 4 pop 5
carry 0 carry 0 carry 1
sound 6 sound 7 sound 9
window 3 window 3 window 2
building 3 building 1 building 5
mean 3.666666667 3.333333333 4.333333333
mode 3 1 1
median 3 1 4
std.
deviation 2.55 3.91 2.83

b. Keywords by participant

psych ia grp A (no context psych ia grp B (context given psych ia grp C (context given
given) before) after)
keywords keywords keywords
recalled participants recalled participants recalled participants
5 participant 1 2 participant 1 3 participant 1
7 participant 2 6 participant 2 2 participant 2
2 participant 3 2 participant 3 3 participant 3
4 participant 4 1 participant 4 4 participant 4
7 participant 5 4 participant 5 7 participant 5
4 participant 6 1 participant 6 5 participant 6
2 participant 7 2 participant 7 6 participant 7