Schemas 06.12.

2022

Schema
• A unit of knowledge
• A set of linked mental representations of the world, which
we use both to understand and to respond to situations
• Mental representations stored in LTM and applied when
needed

In a restaurant
• A person might have a schema about a meal in a restaurant. The
schema is a stored form of the pattern of behavior which includes
looking at a menu, ordering food, eating it and paying the bill. This is
an example of a type of schema called a 'script'.
• Whenever people are in a restaurant, they retrieve this schema from
memory and apply it to the situation.

KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION
• According to schema theory, it is through building of
increasing numbers of ever more complex schemas by
combining elements consisting of lower level schemas into
higher level schemas that skilled performance develops.
The acquisition of schemas is an active, constructive
process.

LONG-TERM MEMORY (LTM)

• It is suggested that people have schemes by which they organise
information and consequently conversation between individuals is
most effective if both share common schemata.
• Consider the following passage from a study carried out by Bransford
and Johnson.

What influences learning: Prior experience/knowledge

• John was on his way to school last Friday. He was really
worried about the math’s lesson.
• Most readers would consider John a schoolboy since the
information is not directly stated in the text. This process is
called inference. Other inferences refer to the way John is
getting to school. Some readers would assume that he is
walking to school, while others that he is going to school by
bus. The inferences are derived from conventional
knowledge based on the reader’s experience and culture.

Context
• Mary heard the ice cream man coming down the
street. She remembered her birthday money and
rushed into the house...
• On reading this text most readers would consider Mary
a little girl, who hearing an ice cream man, hurried into
the house to take the money she probably got on her
birthday in order to buy an ice cream.
• But, what happens after the next part of the text:
• ... and locked the door.
• The next part of the text does not fit into the
constructed interpretation. Therefore, it is necessary to
revise the interpretation in order to make these two
pieces of information compatible and the whole text
coherent.