a schema is a generalization of past
experiences that forms a scripted
pattern of thought
for example we all have a specific
process in mind when we think about
going to a restaurant
imagine standing in line placing an
order and eating
and then throwing the trash away others
imagine being seated then ordering
sharing everything
and then paying leaving a generous tip
we can think of a schema as a mental
framework
in the form of a kid's toy things we
already
fully understand say a triangle get into
our brain without a problem
when new information is similar to what
we know say a square
it can enter the brain through
assimilation for completely new
information
hear a star this doesn't work then we
need accommodation and to change the
schema itself
assimilation is the cognitive process of
making
new information fit in with your
existing understanding of the world
it works if new information is close to
what we already know
to process the new information we make
it fit into our existing schemas
we have to use accommodation if things
are so unique that they don't fit into
our existing schema
in other words to understand something
truly new
we first have to remodel our brain space
just imagine you were born completely
colorblind
not a million books or the best teacher
could ever truly explain
red to you you need to experience it to
accommodate the idea
frederick bartlett demonstrated how
schema unconsciously alter
our perception and memory in what became
known as the war of the ghosts
experiment
he did that by reading to his british
students
a strange native american folk tale from
the chinook tribe
the story involved ghosts hunting seals
going to war and canoeing
later he monitored how the students
recalled what they remembered from the
story
first days then weeks and then months
after
three striking things happened
1. omission of unfamiliar details
multiple students did not recall a part
about the chinooks going hunting seals
this happens because hunting seals does
not naturally
fit into the cultural context of rich
british students
in other words they do not have an
existing schema for this kind of
information
therefore they have a hard time
understanding it
and hence can't move it into their
long-term memory
for later recall and so they forget
bartlett argued that psychologically we
conceive anything that doesn't
fit our schema as irrelevant
2. familiarization of things strange
some of the students that initially did
remember the part about hunting seals
later recalled the activity as going
fishing
a canoe that was loaded with weapons was
remembered as a rowboat
this happens because when we lack the
words to describe
new unique experiences we use idioms
or figures of speech in other words
we channel unfamiliar information
through the framework of a familiar
schema
and because we do that every time we
recall that unique experience
over time it becomes more familiar and
less authentic
3. rationalization of the illogical
right after it was told most students
thought that the tale was strange
a few weeks later however it suddenly
made a lot of sense to some of them
the students began to add terms such as
therefore
and because and unconsciously made the
story
casual and logically coherent
whenever they retrieved it from memory
they added a reason
the chinooks didn't go hunting seals or
to war
on their canoes they took the boats
because they wanted to go
fishing bartlett noted that each time
the students were asked to recall the
story
it had changed a bit which means that
long-term memories are neither
fixed nor immutable but are constantly
being adjusted
this supports the existentialist view
that people construct the past in a
constant process of adjustment
in other words much of what we remember
is rationalized into a self-narrative
that allows us to think of our life as a
coherent string of events
jean piaget who coined the term argued
that we construct our experiences into
skimata
so we can make sense of the world
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