What Role Do Schemas Play in the Learning Process? moz-extension://3b2187d6-6768-4c2c-b0f7-ec38a52a0424/re...
[Link]
What Role Do Schemas Play in the Learning
Process?
Kendra Cherry, MSEd
9 - 12 minutes
In psychology, a schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps
organize and interpret information.
Simply put, a schema describes patterns of thinking and behavior that
people use to interpret the world. We use schemas because they allow us
to take shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information that is
available in our environment.
You may have heard the word schema as it relates to coding, where it
refers to how a database is structured. While a schema in psychology still
refers to how information is organized, it focuses on how the human
mind does it.
Schemas are mental models found in long-term memory. The brain
utilizes such models to organize information about the world. Schemas
are essentially built from our memories of our unique experiences.
However, these mental frameworks also cause us to exclude pertinent
information to focus instead only on things that confirm our pre-existing
beliefs and ideas. Schemas can contribute to stereotypes and make it
difficult to retain new information that does not conform to our
established ideas about the world.
Verywell / Emily Roberts
History of Schemas
The use of schemas as a basic concept was first used by a British
psychologist named Frederic Bartlett as part of his learning theory.
Bartlett's theory suggested that our understanding of the world is formed
by a network of abstract mental structures.
1 of 6 15/11/2023, 7:42 am
What Role Do Schemas Play in the Learning Process? moz-extension://3b2187d6-6768-4c2c-b0f7-ec38a52a0424/re...
Theorist Jean Piaget introduced the term schema, and its use was
popularized through his work. According to his theory of cognitive
development, children go through a series of stages of intellectual
growth.
In Piaget's theory, a schema is both the category of knowledge as well as
the process of acquiring that knowledge. He believed that people are
constantly adapting to the environment as they take in new information
and learn new things.
As experiences happen and new information is presented, new schemas
are developed and old schemas are changed or modified.
Schema Examples
For example, a young child may first develop a schema for a horse. She
knows that a horse is large, has hair, four legs, and a tail. When the little
girl encounters a cow for the first time, she might initially call it a horse.
After all, it fits in with her schema for the characteristics of a horse; it is a
large animal that has hair, four legs, and a tail. Once she is told that this
is a different animal called a cow, she will modify her existing schema for
a horse and create a new schema for a cow.
Now, let's imagine that this girl encounters a miniature horse for the first
time and mistakenly identifies it as a dog.
Her parents explain to her that the animal is actually a very small type of
horse, so the little girl must at this time modify her existing schema for
horses. She now realizes that while some horses are very large animals,
others can be very small. Through her new experiences, her existing
schemas are modified and new information is learned.
Types of Schemas
While Piaget focused on childhood development, schemas are something
that all people possess and continue to form and change throughout life.
Object schemas are just one type of schema that focuses on what an
inanimate object is and how it works. People have all types of schemas
for all kinds of information, including schemas about people, objects,
places, events, and relationships.
For example, most people in industrialized nations have a schema for
2 of 6 15/11/2023, 7:42 am
What Role Do Schemas Play in the Learning Process? moz-extension://3b2187d6-6768-4c2c-b0f7-ec38a52a0424/re...
what a car is. Your overall schema for a car might include subcategories
for different types of automobiles such as a compact car, sedan, or sports
car.
The four main types of schemas are:
• Person schemas are focused on specific individuals. For example,
your schema for your friend might include information about her
appearance, her behaviors, her personality, and her preferences.
• Social schemas include general knowledge about how people
behave in certain social situations.
• Self-schemas are focused on your knowledge about yourself. This
can include both what you know about your current self as well as
ideas about your idealized or future self.
• Event schemas are focused on patterns of behavior that should be
followed for certain events. This acts much like a script informing
you of what you should do, how you should act, and what you should
say in a particular situation.
How Schemas Change
The processes through which schemas are adjusted or changed are
known as assimilation and accommodation.
• In assimilation, new information is incorporated into pre-existing
schemas.
• In accommodation, existing schemas might be altered or new
schemas might be formed as a person learns new information and
has new experiences.
Schemas tend to be easier to change during childhood but can become
increasingly rigid and difficult to modify as people grow older. Schemas
will often persist even when people are presented with evidence that
contradicts their beliefs.
In many cases, people will only begin to slowly change their schemas
when inundated with a continual barrage of evidence pointing to the
need to modify it.
How Schemas Affect Learning
Schemas also play a role in education and the learning process. For
3 of 6 15/11/2023, 7:42 am
What Role Do Schemas Play in the Learning Process? moz-extension://3b2187d6-6768-4c2c-b0f7-ec38a52a0424/re...
example:
• Schemas influence what we pay attention to. People are more likely
to pay attention to things that fit in with their current schemas.
• Schemas also impact how quickly people learn. People also learn
information more readily when it fits in with the existing schemas.
• Schemas help simplify the world. Schemas can often make it easier
for people to learn about the world around them. New information
could be classified and categorized by comparing new experiences to
existing schemas.
• Schemas allow us to think quickly. Even under conditions when
things are rapidly changing our new information is coming in
quickly, people do not usually have to spend a great deal of time
interpreting it. Because of the existing schemas, people are able to
assimilate this new information quickly and automatically.
• Schemas can also change how we interpret incoming
information. When learning new information that does not fit with
existing schemas, people sometimes distort or alter the new
information to make it fit with what they already know.
• Schemas can also be remarkably difficult to change. People often
cling to their existing schemas even in the face of contradictory
information.
Challenges of Schemas
While the use of schemas to learn, in most situations, occurs
automatically or with little effort, sometimes an existing schema can
hinder the learning of new information.
Prejudice is one example of a schema that prevents people from seeing
the world as it is and inhibits them from taking in new information.
By holding certain beliefs about a particular group of people, this
existing schema may cause people to interpret situations incorrectly.
When an event happens that challenges these existing beliefs, people
may come up with alternative explanations that uphold and support
their existing schema instead of adapting or changing their beliefs.
Resistance to Change
Consider how this might work for gender expectations and stereotypes.
Everyone has a schema for what is considered masculine and feminine
4 of 6 15/11/2023, 7:42 am
What Role Do Schemas Play in the Learning Process? moz-extension://3b2187d6-6768-4c2c-b0f7-ec38a52a0424/re...
in their culture. Such schemas can also lead to stereotypes about how we
expect men and women to behave and the roles we expect them to fill.
In one interesting study, researchers showed children images that were
either consistent with gender expectations (such as a man working on a
car and woman washing dishes) while others saw images that were
inconsistent with gender stereotypes (a man washing dishes and a
woman fixing a car).
When later asked to remember what they had seen in the images,
children who held very stereotypical views of gender were more likely to
change the gender of the people they saw in the gender-inconsistent
images. For example, if they saw an image of a man washing dishes, they
were more likely to remember it as an image of a woman washing
dishes.
A Word From Verywell
Piaget's theory of cognitive development provided an important
dimension to our understanding of how children develop and learn.
Though the processes of adaptation, accommodation, and equilibration,
we build, change, and grow our schemas which provide a framework for
our understanding of the world around us.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed
studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial
process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content
accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
1. Baldwin MW. Psychological bulletin. American Psychological
Association. 1992. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.3.461
2. Padesky CA. Schema change processes in cognitive therapy. Clinical
Psychology and Psychotherapy. 1994;1:267–278.
doi:10.1002/cpp.5640010502
3. Aosved AC, Long PJ, Voller EK. Measuring sexism, racism, sexual
prejudice, ageism, classism, and religious intolerance: The Intolerant
Schema Measure. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
2009;39(10):2321-2354. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00528.x
4. Bauer PJ. Memory for gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent
event sequences by twenty-five-month-old children. Child Dev.
5 of 6 15/11/2023, 7:42 am
What Role Do Schemas Play in the Learning Process? moz-extension://3b2187d6-6768-4c2c-b0f7-ec38a52a0424/re...
1993;64(1):285-297.
Additional Reading
• Levine, LE & Munsch, J. Child Development. Los Angeles: Sage; 2014.
• Lindon, J & Brodie, K. Understanding Child Development 0-8 Years,
4th Edition: Linking Theory and Practice. London: Hodder Education;
2016.
By Kendra Cherry, MSEd
Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology
educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."
Thanks for your feedback!
6 of 6 15/11/2023, 7:42 am
