Mental 'units' of knowledge that correspond to
frequently encountered people, objects or situations.
Allow us to make sense of what we encounter - we can
predict what is going to happen and what we should do
in any given situation.
Be determined by social values and therefore prejudice.
Capable of distorting unfamiliar or unconsciously
‘unacceptable’ information in order to ‘fit in’ with our
existing knowledge or schemas.
Result in unreliable eyewitness testimony.
“War of the Ghost” experiment (Bartlett, 1932)