EdPsychSpreadActivation
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This is a companion module that I use to help students understand the nature of priming and spread activation. The 'sample schema' created in this presentation was created using Inspiration.com software. This module can be viewed as a narrated movie off my website for the course: http://courses.ncsu.edu/edp304/lec/002/
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EdPsychSpreadActivation
- 1. Exploring Schema Theory: Priming & Spread Activation Using Inspiration © to ‘reveal’ hidden principles of cognitive science schema theory. EDP 304 Educational Psychology Dr. Heather A. Davis, Dept. Curriculum & Instruction
Editor's Notes
- Welcome to the module on exploring schema theory. My name is Dr. Heather A. Davis and I’ll be your guide. In this module we will take a closer look at the concepts of priming and spread activation. You will also get the opportunity to see how concept mapping software like Inspiration © can be used as a tool to reveal hidden concepts to your students.
- Let’s begin by reviewing the learning objectives for this module. Before staring, please be sure to review the Module on cognitive processing / schema theory in our text book. Pages for this module can be found on our syllabus. In this module we will review concepts and principles of schema theory, learn about the concepts of priming and spread activation , view an example of priming and spread activation , and consider the implications of priming and spread activation for classroom instruction and assessment.
- Let’s begin with a quick review of schema theory. Schema theory aims to describe how we organize knowledge in our long term memory and how the structures in our long term memory bank systematically change as a function of acquiring increasingly more, and more complex, information . The basic premise of schema theory is that knowledge about a concept is organized as a network of nodes and links. Nodes are the pieces of information we acquire and links are the connections we make between pieces of information. According to schema theory, we can active students’ existing knowledge by priming a node in their schema. Priming involves triggering information from our long term storage and pulling it into our working memory. Priming can be explicit - for example, when asking students a question. Or, it can be implicit - for example signaling students to a group activity by merely arranging the desks in the classroom into clusters. As soon as we prime a node in students’ schemas, additional information connected to that node will also become activated through the process of spread activation. Brainstorming and free association activities, for instance, capitalize on the process of spread activation by asking students to generate lists of ideas based off a single prime. In this case the ideas the students generate represent the nodes and links triggered during spread activation. How does the “activation” of information in students’ schemas affect learning? For one thing, accessing students’ existing knowledge about a subject can help teachers to focus their instruction. When introducing an activity, teachers can follow the trail of spread activation to find out what their students already know about a concept. This can help them not only tailor their planning to the appropriate level of challenge, but also anticipate how they might differentiate for students who evidence an advanced understanding or for students who are unfamiliar with the topic. Accessing students’ existing knowledge about a subject can also help teachers to discover hidden misconceptions that might interfere with their students’ learning. For example, an elementary teacher once asked her class: What is rain? A young man, excited to participate, raised his hand and said: “Rain is like fuzzy sunshine seeds that fall from the sky.” Cute? Yes. Accurate? No. While a sweet saying, probably lovingly shared on a rainy afternoon when he was sad about the rain – this kind of intuitive understanding of rain can interfere with a teacher’s lesson on the precipitation cycle. Rain is neither fuzzy nor is it a seed. Each of these misconceptions represent a node in the child’s schema that are not only linked to each other but also linked to the expectation that rain falls from the sky. In order for this child to develop a more accurate representation of rain, the teacher would have to create an opportunity for the child to evaluate the fit of these understandings with a scientific understanding of rain. Finally, how we prime students’ schemas can affect the activation of information and, therefore their ability to recall different nodes in their schema. This can have really important implications for assessing what students know on a test. What if the prime you used on a question wasn’t effective in activating that part of their schema? Or, it activated the correct node, but activated a different path of links? Students might actually have acquired the information from your lesson, but because of your prime are not able to effectively demonstrate what they know.
- In the next slide you will see a sample “schema” a child might have for what it is like to be an elementary school student. Lets’ assume two children hold identical schemas. OK, you’re right, that is really a whopper of an assumption. But, it’s not such a stretch to think that following a lesson you taught, children’s schemas should contain similar information and structure. So, back to our example, lets’ assume two children hold identical schemas and you ask both of them to tell you, “What does it mean to be an elementary school student?” On this particular day you spoke with the first student just after he had been picked on in during his bus ride to school. You then spoke with the other student after she just received feedback from the teacher about doing poorly on a written assignment. As we walk through the examples, compare how the content of information you receive from the two children about what it is like to be an elementary school student might appear different even though the content and structure of their schemas are the same. Think about how the prime and spread of information shaped their recall and consider how we could manipulate the priming process so that the two students accessed similar information? Ok, let’s look at two examples.
- Imagine this is the shared schema for what it means to be an elementary school student. Notice the ‘prime’ in the center: “ What does it mean to be an elementary school student?” activates this schema. This schema has nine core nodes including: listening to the teacher, riding the bus, making friends, getting in trouble, playing on the play ground, doing work, lining up, going to lunch, and doing homework. Organized around these core nodes are individual nodes representing the semantic, declarative, and procedural knowledge these children have acquired about being a student. Nodes are linked together as well as to their core node, the organizing principle. We can characterize this schema both by the amount of knowledge it contains, it’s cohesion, and it’s structure.
- Consider student #1. On the morning you interview this student about “What it means to be an elementary school student?” he was bullied on the bus. A broad prime, such as this open-ended question allows the spread of information to flow to either the most salient or the most recent event. These are called primacy and recency effects.
- Once the node “bullies” is activated in the child’s schema, activation spreads to the links connected to the nodes bullies. These are highlighted in red. Some links will activate individual nodes like “gym” (center-right). Other links will activate core nodes such as riding the bus.
- Once core nodes are activated, recall spreads quickly.
- This is because core nodes organize information in a schema, and often the way stations to other information. Using a broad prime, this child share that being an elementary student involves being bullied on the bus, on the playground, and while eating lunch. He might talk about how he has observed bullies getting in trouble and how he, himself, has gotten in trouble. As you follow up, you might get more information about what it is like in the lunch room, on the bus, or on the playground and you might even hear about his friends in these venues. But the important thing to notice is that portions of the schema might not be revealed in the interview as they were not activated in the search.
- To contrast, take student #2 who, the morning of the interview, received feedback on her writing that it needed to be revised. Again, because we used a broad prime, the open-ended question: “What does it mean to be an elementary school student” we allowed for primacy and recency effects to influence the activation of information in the schema.
- In this case, an entirely different set of core nodes, and nodes are activated.
- The core node of ‘doing work’ control the spread of information differently, activating more of the semantic, declarative, and procedural knowledge tied to academic life in school.
- The type of interview this child would offer might look quite different as he discusses the type of work he is doing in his classes and the feedback he receives, what it means to listen to the teacher and how listening looks in different venues such as the classroom, hallway, the playground. Despite having experiences with bullies, this child may not reveal his experiences because the spread of information in his schema took a different route.
- So, how do priming and spread activation operate? Broad primes, such as open ended questions, allow for children to control or direct spread activation in their schema. Their responses are likely to be affected by primacy (whist is important) and recency (what was recently observed) effects. Because spread activation is less directed, some knowledge may not be revealed – despite having been acquired and stored in the schema. How could we change the prime so that the two students accessed and recalled similar information? One way would be to ask more specific primes that probe the content of the schema? Expert interviewers use this strategy when collecting data. They begin with open-ended questions and then follow up with more specific question the check to see if similar content exists. For example, we could follow up by asking Student #1: “Can you tell me about the work you do in school?” to see if they have acquired semantic, declarative, and procedural knowledge about academic subjects. Likewise, we could follow up by asking Student #2: “Have you ever had an experience of being bullied at school?” Even more specifically, we could evaluate the extent to which the schemas truly are identical by asking students: “What does it mean to be bullied at school?” This very specific prime is attempting to access the semantic knowledge contained in the node for bullies. Have students acquired the same definition?
- Let’s take a moment to check your understanding of priming and spread activation. Do you have your pencil ready? You can pause the slide show if you need more time to write down your responses. How would you define priming? (pause) How would you define spread activation? (pause) How are priming and spread activation related to teacher questioning? (pause) How are priming and spread activation related to classroom assessment? (pause)
- Finally, before we leave this module, here are some key terms for the unit on schema theory. Be sure you understand these terms including how they are defined, how they relate to each other and, of course, their implications for classroom practice. Consider taking the time to define these terms in your glossary. And, of course, be sure to bring your questions about schema theory, priming, and spread activation to class!