Question

According to one saying, “The more you know, the easier it is to learn.” What evidence do we have for this statement, based on the material discussed in this chapterr 5 and 6 of Cognition 9th Ed. by Matlin? Be sure to include information on expertise and schemas as part of your answer.

Answer 1

The more you know, the easier it is to learn . The saying itself tlks about mental neetwork of information that we make in our mind, called schemas. Schemas can be for almost everthing around us like: people, animals, places, objects and situations. When first time one situation is encoutered we make a schema associated to it which is further useful to supplement more information and incorporate more ideas when provided with more information. For example, when a child is taught about "Doctor" as a helper, he/she develops a schema of doctors with certain physical and behavioral characteristics like: wears white coat, carries the stethoscope, treats people who are ill etc. In this way child develops a concept of doctor in mind and also bears certain properties of being a doctor. Slowly as the child grows up,he/she encouters doctors at variety of occassions and situations. The concept of doctor keeps on transforming as the child meets them on different time and place. At this position he/ she understand that there are various types of doctor working on different aspects of health in different settings. So the already existing information is supplemented with more information which makes the schema become more and moredetailed, this inturn makes it easy to accomodate new information to the concept.