Unreliable Witness?
Having dealt with Freud, the unconscious and inkblot tests in previous years, Mr Higginson, Head of Psychology, explored a different but not entirely unrelated theme with the current group—schema.
Beginning with an exercise in which the students shared the qualities or characteristics they associated with the words male and female, Mr Higginson carefully showed how these schema, or systems of ideas about the world, are built up: a young child builds up an idea of a bird, for example—wings, tail, flight—but what happens when they encounter a plane? He showed how it is easier to adapt an existing schema, for example by adding another feature—birds also sing—but it is very hard to unpick the schema completely.
Obviously, this is an important area of study, particularly in areas such as the law, where studies suggest that people can find it difficult to break away from schema and may then misattribute characteristics to subjects in a trial, for example. Or they may use their schema to fill in the gaps in their memory when giving eyewitness testimony to the police, limiting its accuracy.
The group were engaged throughout, providing many thoughtful observations.
