Question

According to Plante, schemas are cognitive structures that we develop through interaction with the world. What do schemas ‘do’ for us?

Answer 1

Cognitive schemas are mental representations of various patterns of thoughts, behaviors and aspects of the world. It is a mental structure comprising of ideas and information about the world. Schema helps us organize and categorize information. They are useful in learning about the world, for example. A person forms an idea about a particular race, customs and language by reading about it, and has developed a schema about that particular group, this helps him to know about the group better and also helps him to interact with them. Cognitive schemas also include beliefs such as that smoking is harmful to health, this schema provides us with a framework and knowledge of the world.