Key Study: Anderson and Pichert (1978) Aim: To investigate if schema processing influences both encoding and retrieval

Method: Highly controlled lab experiment; tight control of variables allowed for the establishment of a cause-andeffect relationship Procedure: The participants listened to a story about two boys who skipped school one day, who went to one of their homes because it was always empty on Thursdays. The house was described as isolated and in a good neighborhood, with a leaky roof, a color TV, a coin collection, and a bike. The participants heard a story that was based on 72 points and were split into halfhalf the group were to read the story in terms of a house-buyer and the other half in terms of a burglar. After reading, they were distracted for 12 minutes, than delayed for 5 minutes as half the participants had to receive a different schemathose in the burglar group were switched to the buyer group and vice versa. The other half of the participants retained their schema. Their recall was tested. Findings: The participants in the changed schema group remembered 7% more points on the second recall than the first. Recall of points that were only linked to the new schema increased 10% while recall of points relating to the previous schema decreased. The group that retained their original schema remembered fewer points the second time around. The results show that schema processing must effect retrieval and encoding, because the new schema couldve only influenced recall during the retrieval stage. People also encoded information which was irrelevant to their prevailing schema, because those in the buyer schema could remember information relating to the burglar schema and vice versa.