Schema (psychology)
A schema is a mental framework of related knowledge about a topic, object or situation. It lets you fit new information to what you already know, which makes understanding and remembering faster. Bartlett brought the idea into memory research in 1932. A rich schema makes new facts easy to attach, and a missing one makes the same facts feel like noise.
In more detail
Bartlett (1932) asked people to retell a Native American folk tale, The War of the Ghosts, and found they bent it towards their own culture's story patterns, dropping odd details and adding familiar ones. Memory was not a recording: people rebuilt the story from schemas. Piaget used the same word for how children build knowledge, through assimilation, which fits new information into an existing schema, and accommodation, which changes the schema when the information does not fit.
Schemas speed up learning. In a well-known experiment by Bransford and Johnson (1972), people read a confusing paragraph about washing clothes. Those who were told the topic first understood and recalled much more than those who were not, although the words were identical. The topic woke up a schema and the sentences had somewhere to attach.
The cost is distortion. A schema fills gaps with what usually happens, so you may remember details that were never there and overlook facts that do not fit. Do not confuse the psychology term with schema therapy, a clinical approach to deeply rooted patterns, or with a database schema.
Common kinds of schema
| Kind | What it holds | Study example |
|---|---|---|
| Content schema | Knowledge about a subject | Your picture of how a cell is built |
| Event schema (script) | The usual steps of a situation | What happens in an oral exam |
| Person and self schema | Beliefs about people or yourself | I am bad at maths |
| Text schema | How a type of text is built | Introduction, method, results, discussion in a paper |
Example
Two students read the same chapter on the Krebs cycle. Lena has a school schema for cell respiration: glucose goes in, energy comes out. The chapter's new steps attach to that frame and she remembers them after one pass. Tom starts with no frame and meets eight enzyme names as a flat list. After Tom sketches the big picture first, glucose in, ATP out, the cycle in the middle, the same names have places to sit.
How to use it
- 1
Before you read, skim the headings and write down what you already know about the topic for two minutes. This wakes up the schema.
- 2
Start with the big picture: a one-paragraph summary or a map of the chapter, then the details.
- 3
Attach every new fact to something you know. Ask what it is a type of and what it is similar to.
- 4
Draw a concept map of the topic and extend it each session instead of starting new notes.
- 5
Look for facts that do not fit. They show where your schema is wrong or incomplete, and fixing them is where the learning happens.
How StudyPDF does this
StudyPDF turns your lectures into an outline of lectures, topics and concepts, which is a ready-made frame for new material to attach to. A mind map of the course shows how the topic hangs together, and a summary gives you the big picture before you drill details. Every quiz question is tagged with the concepts it tests, so you see which parts of your frame are solid and which are thin.
See also
Put it to work on your own course
Upload your lectures and ask Bo. Cited answers, plus flashcards, exams, and more built from your material.
Common questions
What is a schema in psychology, with an example?
A schema is a mental framework that organizes what you know about something. Your restaurant schema says you are seated, order, eat and pay, so you know what to do in a restaurant you have never visited. In studying, your schema of the cell helps you place a new organelle in the picture.
What is the difference between assimilation and accommodation?
Assimilation fits new information into a schema you already have, like calling a new kind of sparrow a bird. Accommodation changes or builds a schema because the information does not fit, like learning that a bat is not a bird and adjusting your idea of what a bird is.