Having dealt with Freud, the unconscious, and ink blot tests with last year’s Athenaeum, 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 as having wings, a tail, and the ability to fly, but what happens when they encounter a plane?
He explained 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 individuals in a trial, or they may use their schema to fill in the gaps in their memory when giving eye-witness testimony to the police, limiting its accuracy.
Several students stayed on at the end of the session for further discussion: evidence of the thought-provoking nature of the talk.