 A schema is a generalization of past experiences that forms a scripted pattern of thought. For example, we all have a specific process in mind when we think about going to a restaurant. Some imagine standing in line, placing an order, and eating, and then throwing the trash away. Others imagine being seated, then ordering, sharing everything, and then paying, leaving a generous tip. We can think of a schema as a mental framework in the form of a kid's toy. Things we already fully understand, say a triangle, get into our brain without a problem. When new information is similar to what we know, say a square, it can enter the brain through assimilation. For completely new information, here a star, this doesn't work. Then we need accommodation and to change the schema itself. Accommodation is the cognitive process of making new information fit in with your existing understanding of the world. It works if new information is close to what we already know. To process the new information, we make it fit into our existing schemas. We have to use accommodation if things are so unique that they don't fit into our existing schema. In other words, to understand something truly new, we first have to remodel our brain space. Just imagine you were born completely colorblind. Not a million books or the best teacher could ever truly explain red to you. You need to experience it to accommodate the idea. Frederick Bartlett demonstrated how schema unconsciously alter our perception and memory in what became known as the War of the Ghosts experiment. He did that by reading to his British students a strange Native American folktale from the Chinook tribe. The story involved ghosts, hunting seals, going to war and canoeing. Later, he monitored how the students recalled what they remembered from the story, first days, then weeks, and then months after. Three striking things happened. 1. Omission of unfamiliar details Multiple students did not recall a part about the Chinooks going hunting seals. This happens because hunting seals does not naturally fit into the cultural context of rich British students. In other words, they do not have an existing schema for this kind of information. Therefore, they have a hard time understanding it and hence can't move it into their long-term memory for later recall, and so they forget. Bartlett argued that psychologically we conceive anything that doesn't fit our schema as irrelevant. 2. Familiarization of things strange Some of the students that initially did remember the part about hunting seals later recalled the activity as going fishing, a canoe that was loaded with weapons was remembered as a rowboat. This happens because when we like the words to describe new unique experiences we use idioms or figures of speech. In other words, we channel unfamiliar information through the framework of a familiar schema and because we do that every time we recall that unique experience, over time it becomes more familiar and less authentic. 3. Rationalization of the illogical Right after it was told, most students thought that the tale was strange. A few weeks later, however, it suddenly made a lot of sense to some of them. The students began to add terms such as therefore and because and unconsciously made the story casual and logically coherent. Whenever they retrieved it from memory they added a reason. The Chinooks didn't go hunting seals or to war on their canoes, they took the boats because they wanted to go fishing. Bartlett noted that each time the students were asked to recall the story it had changed a bit, which means that long-term memories are neither fixed nor immutable but are constantly being adjusted. This supports the existentialist view that people construct the past in a constant process of adjustment. In other words, much of what we remember is rationalized into a self-narrative that allows us to think of our life as a coherent string of events. Jean Piaget, who coined the term, argued that we can construct our experiences into ski martyrs so we can make sense of the world. Sprout's videos are published under the Creative Commons license. That means our videos are free and anyone can download, edit and play them for personal use. And public schools, governments, and non-profit organizations can also use them for training, online courses, or designing new curriculums. To help us stay independent and support our work, you can join our patrons and contribute. Just visit patreon.com slash sprouts. Even one dollar can make a difference.