ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews of empirical studies of learning, memory, and social judgment that are concerned with the effects of cognitive schemata or expectancies on memory for specific events. It provides a framework in which questions about schema relevance and memorability can be clearly stated. The chapter reviews some of the major experimental approaches to the issue and summarizes the conceptual tools, available in current theories of memory. Recent research on human memory has departed from the verbal learning tradition by exploring the operation of more and more complex schemata. Probably a major motivation of this movement is still to show that simple associative linkage models are inadequate or, at least, very implausible. Schank and Abelson’s script and goal analysis is the most thorough going effort to characterize causal reasoning underlying story comprehension and memory. Associationist accounts emphasized fading or decay of the original memory trace and interference with the trace caused by experience with other similar forms.
