SCHEMA THEORY

• Schema theory is a branch of cognitive science

concerned with how the brain structures
knowledge.

• Schema theory states that all knowledge is

organized into units and within these units of
knowledge or schemata, is stored information.
• 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.
• Schemas are something that all people possess and
continue to form and change throughout life
Scheme
• This is an organized pattern of thought or action that one
constructs to interpret some aspect of one’s experience.
• In Piaget’s theory, schemes are actions or mental
representations that organize knowledge.
• It is based on past experience and is accessed to guide
current understanding or action
• Schemes are unobservable mental systems that underlie
intelligence. They are representations of reality.
• As the infant or child seeks to construct an understanding
of the world, the developing brain creates schemes.
• For Piaget, cognitive development is the development of
schemes, or structures
• For example, a baby’s schemes are structured by simple
actions that can be performed on objects such as sucking,
looking, and grasping.
• Older children have schemes that include strategies and
plans for solving problems.
• Schemas are dynamic – they develop and change based on
new information and experiences and thereby support the
notion of plasticity in development.
• Schemas guide how we interpret new information and may
be quite powerful in their influence
• Schemas store both declarative (“what”) and procedural
(“how”) information.
• declarative knowledge is knowing facts, knowing that
something is the case
• procedural knowledge is knowing how to do something –
perhaps with no conscious ability to describe how it is done
Types of schemas
Object schemas
• These focus on what an inanimate object is and how
it works.
• For example, a schema for 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.
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
• E.g. the schema of the life at The University of
Malawi might be different from other social
settings
Self-schemas
•These 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
• These 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 do schemas change?
• The processes through which schemas are adjusted
or changed are known as assimilation and
accommodation
• 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
Organization
• This is a Piaget’s concept of grouping isolated behaviors and
thoughts into a higher-order, more smoothly functioning
cognitive system.
• To make sense out of their world, children cognitively
organize their experiences.
• Example, A boy who has only a vague idea about how to
use a hammer may also have a vague idea about how to
use other tools. After learning how to use each one, he
relates these uses, organizing his knowledge.
• The goal of organization is to promote adaptation.
Adaptation
• This an inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of
the environment.
• Adaptation occurs through two complementary
activities: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation
• This is the process by which children try to
interpret new experiences in terms of their
existing models of the world, the schemes they
already possess.
• This is a Piagetian concept of using existing
schemes to deal with new information or
experiences.
• Example 1: A young child who sees a horse for the first
time may try to assimilate it into one of her existing
schemes for four-legged animals and thus may think of
this creature as a “doggie.”
In other words, the child is trying to adapt to this novel
stimulus by interpreting it as some-thing familiar.
• Example 2: A child knows that everything that moves is
alive, and says that the sun is alive since it moves from
east to west
Accommodation
• This is a Piagetian concept of adjusting schemes to fit
new information and experiences into account.
• Example: If the child who recognizes that a horse is
not a dog may invent a name for this new creature or
perhaps say “What dat?” and adopt the label that
her companions use. In so doing, she has modified
• (accommodated) her scheme for four-legged animals
to include a new category of experience— horses
Disequilibrium
• This is the imbalance or contradiction between
one’s thought processes and environmental events.
• In trying to understand the world, the child
experiences cognitive conflict, or disequilibrium.
• i.e, the child is constantly faced with counter
examples to his or her existing schemes and with
inconsistencies.
Examples;
• a child had a scheme that all moving objects are
alive, and later comes into senses that some moving
objects cannot be alive like the sun.

• if a child believes that pouring water from a short

and wide container into a tall and narrow container
changes the amount of water, then the child might
be puzzled by where the “extra” water came from.
Equilibration
• Is a Piaget’s concept of grouping isolated behaviors
and thoughts into a higher-order, more smoothly
functioning cognitive system.
• This is when there is a balanced and harmonious
relationship between one’s cognitive structures and
the environment
• It is a mechanism that explains how children shift
from one stage of thought to the next.
Application
1. Schema theory reinforces the importance of prior
knowledge to learning and the use of tools such as
advance organizers and memory aids to bridge new
knowledge to older knowledge stored in schema
2. Schemas influence what we pay attention to. People are
more likely to pay attention to things that fit in with
their current schemas
3. Schemas also impact how quickly people learn. People
learn information more readily when it fits in with the
existing schemas.
4. 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
5. 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.
Note:
• Schemas can 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 presented by schemas
• While we use of schemas to learn, sometimes an
existing schema can hinder the learning of new
information.

a. Can cause prejudice

• Some schemas prevents people from seeing the
world as it is and inhibits them from taking in new
information.
• For example;
by holding to 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.
b. Resistance to Change
• E.g. everyone has a schema for what is considered
masculine and feminine 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.
• If a child grew with a scheme that men fix cars and women
wash dishes, then, when the child sees a woman fixing a
car, she might represent her as a man.
• If asked later in the day (what did you see?) she will
respond by saying “I saw a man fixing a car”
• Thank you!!

• Matthews Kamzgezge Nyirenda