Mental Images, Concepts and Schemas

Essay plan.
Introduction
• Give the brief description of what will be covered in the essay. In this case it will be using mental images, concepts and schemas. How we use these in our everyday use, like trying to remember what shopping is needed at home.
Main body
• Explain different ways of how we can improve our memory by using the topics mentioned above.
• Give a written example of each of the following, Mental images, concepts and schemas.
• Stating the where and when the study was done and who studied it.

Conclusion
• Recap briefly on what has been discussed.
• Include references at the end as to where to find the evidence I have written about.
• Include word count.

There are several ways in which we can improve our memory. In this essay I will try to explain the three main things that people choose do to on a daily basis that helps with remembering. They are using mental images, concepts and schemas. People may not be aware of using these methods but they are used in our everyday life and most of the time becomes second nature without even thinking about it. Like when we memorise a shopping list when we go shopping. We can think what we need in the cupboards at home. We are visualising what’s needed.

Mental images.
I will start with mental images. Mental images are a way of organising thinking by making iconic pictures in your head which describe the word you are trying to remember. This technique can be used when we are trying to learn a foreign language. It is called the key word technique. For example ‘poobelle’ is a word which means ‘bin’ in French. If you picture in your mind a bell which has an unpleasant smell this can remind us to remember the word in French.. The bell being an upturned bin and the smell being pooh.
Another way of explaining what a mental image is day dreaming when we stare into space and use our imagination to create picture in our head. It could be anything from decorating the kitchen to re-enacting a situation that’s already happened. Or it can be described as looking through the mind’s eye. There have been several experiments that suggest that we will remember verbal or written information much better if we have a mental picture to relate to.
A good example of the key work technique was an experiment by Michael Raugh and Richard Atkinson in 1975. They conducted the experiment where 2 groups of people were given a list of words to learn in Spanish. One group were taught to use key words the other group not. Both groups were then given the same memory test. The group that were given the key words scored 88 per cent correct compared to the group that scored 28 per cent correct and had no key words. This showed that using this method improved the memory and the learning ability.
Mental images could work better for some people and worse for others as I believe that everyone's mind is different and therefore it is up to an individual to find techniques that work for them.

Concepts
Secondly I will talk about concepts. Concepts are how we understand what something is. . A concept is a way of putting things into groups such as ‘animals’.
Children might have a concept of a dog as having four legs and being made of fur, but then the child could think that a cat is also a dog as it has those same characteristics. So within the concepts there are sub-concepts such as dog, cat, fish or mammals. We now have to put things into categories, this is called concept formation.
Another example is there are various types, designs, brands, and unique structures of chairs, but you know a chair when you see one. That is because you have a concept of what a chair is. The different types of chair are also now put into sub-concepts like arm chair or kitchen chair. An example of this experiment was by Weston Bousfield (1953). Bousfield asked a group of people to learn a list of sixty words that could be divided into four categories. The words were presented in no particular order. He found that the participants tended to remember them in groups which belong in the same category, remembering the apple would then trigger the other words in the ‘group’ lemon, peach and strawberry. I have tried this experiment myself as stated in the book starting with Psychology. I found that after I had looked at the words once I could not remember many. Then I was given a category that the words I looked at fitted into. In having that category (concept) I was able to recall a few other words that were on the list that I did not remember in the first instance. By doing that, it is a way to show how using some words could link together to help remember and improve your memory.
Schemas
Lastly we have schemas. Schemas play an important role in our memory. Psychologists use this word to describe a mental framework in our mind. When we use schemas we take a lot of the little bits of information that is stored in our heads put it all together and make it into a larger picture.
Your memory is like a huge filing cabinet and each file in the cabinet is a schemas. Each schema has a label. For example a label on a file could be the word dentist. When we think about dentist we might think of the chair or the waiting room or even the smell of the room, that information will then be stored alongside the label.
There was also an experiment by Bransford & Johnson (1972) about schemas where participants were told a passage, they had to try and remember as much information as possible. One half of the people doing the test were given a title for the passage that was read out the other half was not. This proved quite difficult for the half who did not have a title. They could not put it into any kind of ‘file’. Once the title was added however the paragraph made more sense to the people reading it and so it was easier to remember. So this example suggests that the title of the paragraph is the schema.

There are many ways in which our mind can organise thoughts and this can help with our memory. Mental images give us pictures of things; concepts put things into ordered groups. Using mental images or concepts could improve our memory. For example, ‘using mental images by constructing pictures will improve memory as the images provide extra clues as to what we are trying to remember. The schema gives us the framework on which to build our memories.

Reference Starting with Psychology y183 by the Open University 2012
Word count 1,032.

Task 2
I had not come across these words before, mental images, concepts and schemas so after reading the book provided I then did some research of my own. I read up on each subject and simplified it into my own words. Once I understood what each subject meant I found writing the essay easier than I first thought.

The hardest thing to do for me was the essay plan. I wrote notes as I was going along while reading the book but to actually write it as a plan and try not to write it in note form was hard. I actually did the essay before I did the plan. I also found it hard to know how to start the essay.

Next time I will try to write more of a sentence when doing notes, and maybe highlighting pieces in the book.