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3. How do schemas work?

Key Points:

  • Because schemas are based on our prior expectations and social knowledge, they have been described as ‘theory-driven’ structures that lend organization to experience.
  • We use these background theories to make sense of new situations and encounters, which suggests that schematic processing is usually driven by the background theories and suppositions rather than actual environmental data.
  • Schemas help us process information quickly and economically and facilitate memory recall.
  • We are more likely to remember details that are consistent with our schema than those that are inconsistent.
  • Simplifying information and reducing the cognitive effort that goes into a task preserves cognitive resources for more important tasks.
  • Schemas, such as stereotypes, function as energy-saving devices.
  • In ambiguous situations, schemas help us to ‘fill in’ missing information with ‘best guesses’ and ‘default options’ based on our expectations and previous experience.
  • Schemas can also provide short cuts by utilizing heuristics such as representativeness.
  • Schemas also serve to evaluate social stimuli as good or bad, normal or abnormal, positive or negative, and some contain a strong affective component, so that when they are activated the associated emotion is cued.
  • Once developed and strengthened through use, schemas become integrated structures; even when only one of its components is accessed, strong associative links between the components activate the schema as a unitary whole.
  • Well-developed schemas that are activated frequently resist change and persist, even in the face of disconfirming evidence.
  • There is considerable empirical support for the sub-typing model of schemas; other models have received less empirical support (e.g. the book-keeping model, the conversion model).

Copyright 2005 BPS Blackwell