The aim of this study is to examine whether the change of schema would affect the process of encoding and retrieval. This experiment is a modification of Anderson and Pichert’s study. The independent variable in the experiment was the two different schemas used in the study (Geography student or tourist) and the dependent variable was the extent to which the participants could recall the story, specifically the number of words in this case. The results suggested that a change in schema of the same story would improve recall, as found by Anderson and Pichert. The Mann Whitney U test indicated that the null hypothesis was accepted. | VNU Journal of Science: Education Research, Vol. 31, No. 4 (2015) 36-44 DISCUSSION The Effect of the Change of Schemas on Recall Lê Phước Thục Nhi* University of Florida Received 02 February 2015 Revised 26 February 2015; Accepted 22 December 2015 Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine whether the change of schema would affect the process of encoding and retrieval. This experiment is a modification of Anderson and Pichert’s study (1977). The independent variable (IV) in the experiment was the two different schemas used in the study (Geography student or tourist) and the dependent variable (DV) was the extent to which the participants could recall the story, specifically the number of words in this case. The results suggested that a change in schema of the same story would improve recall, as found by Anderson and Pichert. The Mann Whitney U test indicated that the null hypothesis was accepted. Keywords: Schema, words recall and retrieval. 1. Introduction * theory states that the knowledge we obtain is organised in to different categories or units that in turn influence the new knowledge we receive from the world. In other words, simply put, the existing schemas in our cognition determines what we remember. It creates a basis for new incoming information to develop into what we can call our own memory and knowledge. It can be regarded as a gap-fill process in which the schemas are pre-given and they determine what are to fill in the missing places. The cognitive level of analysis explores and studies the mental processes of the mind and how the mind works. One of the important aspects of the cognitive level of analysis is memory. Memory, as it has been learnt, is reconstructive. In other words, we do not remember exact details of what our senses perceive from the world around us, but rather memories are formed on the basis of what we already know. This already-existing information that we obtain and have in our minds through time is organised into .
