Probation officers' schemata of offenders: Content, development, and impact on treatment decisions.

Abstract

It is important that schema research uses tasks with rich information, direct relevance to behavior, and individual differences in schema content due to experience. Three studies investigated schemata of criminal types held by probation officers (POs). In Study 1, semistructured interviews revealed 10 schemata shared by a high proportion of POs that included information about criminal behavior, social histories, attributions, treatment and supervisory strategies, and prognoses. Experienced POs produced fewer but richer (more detailed) schemata than inexperienced POs. In Study 2, POs and clerical staff sorted items of information into case descriptions to validate the schemata. POs consistently reproduced schemata, but laypeople did not. Among POs, schema detail depended on experience with instances of the case type. Study 3 showed that schematic knowledge affects probation decisions. Cases fitting a schema were evaluated more consistently and distinctively, and judgments were made more quickly, easily, and confidently than for mixed schematic or real cases. These differences existed for experienced POs but not for clerical staff who lack schematic knowledge. Theoretical and practical issues of schematic processing, expertise, and decision aids are discussed.

A multilevel approach to building and leading learning organizations

“…Over time, these knowledge catalysts will build greater cognitive complexity, defined as "the capacity to construe social behavior in a multidimensional way" (Bieri et al, 1966, p.185). Cognitively complex individuals have enhanced mental models that allow them to make sense of new information, while also enabling them to acquire and store new knowledge and spend more time interpreting new information (Bower & Hilgard, 1981;Dollinger, 1984;Hersey, Walsh, Read, & Chulef, 1990;Lurigio & Carroll, 1985). Ultimately, these followers will become organizational experts because they are able to make connections between multiple domains of knowledge (Ericsson & Charness, 1994).…”

Venture Capitalists’ Evaluations of Start–Up Teams: Trade–Offs, Knock–Out Criteria, and the Impact of VC Experience

“…For example, Lurigio and Carroll (1985) suggest that experienced individuals possess more complete and detailed schemata than inexperienced individuals. Experienced individuals also group domain-specific knowledge in more meaningful ways than those with little experience, will draw on clearer concepts, create richer connections between concepts, and will be able to apply domainspecific problem-solving procedures they have developed over time (Adelson, 1981;Gobbo & Chi, 1986;Knowlton, 1997;Matlin, 2005).…”

Evaluative Schemas and the Attention of Critics in the U.S. Film Industry.

“…Research also suggests that, in very developed schemas, abstract principles are richly interconnected into tightly organized structures (see Fiske and Taylor, 1991, for a review). As a result, well-developed schemas enable people to evaluate schema-consistent information quickly, consistently, and confidently (Lurigio and Carroll, 1985). This type of model may be linked to the processes of legitimation underlying organizational ecological research (Hannan and Freeman, 1977).…”