A script is a pre-existing knowledge structure involving event sequences. We use scripts to build accounts of what happened. For example, we have scripts for what normally happens in all kind of events, such as going to a doctor's office, a movie theatre, a restaurant, or a grocery store. Thus, the concept of a script is simply a way of recognizing some expected sequence of action in an event.
Because most of the details of scripts are assumed to be known, they are unlikely to be stated. Semantics » Focus and content » Semantics and pragmatics: Meaning through interaction » Meaning and discourse » Schemata and scripts. 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.
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.
For example, most people in industrialized nations have 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.
Other types of schemas that people often possess include:. 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. 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. Schemas also play a role in the learning process. For example:.
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. Consider how this might work for gender expectations and stereotypes. 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.
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. 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. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter.
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I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Historical Background. How Schemas Change. How Schemas Affect Learning.
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