Piaget’s Schema: Accommodation and Assimilation of New Information

Summary

The script explores the concept of schemas as mental frameworks that shape our understanding and memory. It explains assimilation, where new information fits existing schemas, and accommodation, required for unique information. Frederic Bartlett's 'war of the ghosts experiment' illustrates how schemas unconsciously alter perception and memory, leading to the omission of unfamiliar details, familiarization of strange things, and rationalization of the illogical. Jean Piaget's theory suggests we construct experiences into schemata for coherent self-narratives.

Takeaways

• 🧠 **Schema Definition**: A schema is a mental framework or pattern of thought based on past experiences.
• 🍽️ **Restaurant Schema Example**: People have different schemas for familiar situations, like going to a restaurant.
• 🔄 **Assimilation vs Accommodation**: Assimilation fits new information into existing schemas, while accommodation requires modifying schemas for new information.
• 🌟 **New Information Processing**: New, unique information that doesn't fit existing schemas requires accommodation to be understood.
• 👶 **Schema as a Mental Toy**: Schemas help us understand familiar concepts easily, but struggle with completely new ones.
• 🎨 **Experience Over Explanation**: Some experiences, like color for the colorblind, cannot be fully understood without direct experience.
• 📚 **Bartlett's 'War of the Ghosts' Experiment**: Demonstrated how schemas affect perception and memory.
• 🐾 **Omission of Unfamiliar Details**: People tend to forget details that don't fit their cultural or experiential schemas.
• 🎣 **Familiarization of the Strange**: When recalling unfamiliar experiences, people replace details with familiar ones over time.
• 🤔 **Rationalization of the Illogical**: People unconsciously make stories logical by adding reasons, changing the original memory.
• 🌐 **Constructing Memories**: Long-term memories are not fixed but are adjusted, reflecting a continuous process of constructing the past.

Q & A

What is a schema according to the script?

A schema is a mental framework or generalization of past experiences that forms a scripted pattern of thought.

How does the script describe the process of going to a restaurant in terms of schema?

The script describes two different schemas for going to a restaurant: one involving standing in line, ordering, eating, and disposing of trash, and another involving being seated, ordering, sharing food, and leaving a generous tip.

What is assimilation in the context of schema?

Assimilation is the cognitive process of making new information fit in with your existing understanding of the world, working when new information is similar to what you already know.

What is accommodation and when is it needed?

Accommodation is the process needed when new information is so unique that it doesn't fit into our existing schema, requiring us to change the schema itself.

How does the script use the analogy of a kid's toy to explain schemas?

The script uses the analogy of a kid's toy to explain that familiar things, like a triangle, easily fit into our brain, while completely new shapes, like a star, require accommodation to understand.

What did Frederic Bartlett demonstrate in the 'war of the ghosts experiment'?

Frederic Bartlett demonstrated how schemas unconsciously alter our perception and memory by having British students recall a strange native American folktale.

What were the three striking findings from Bartlett's experiment?

The three findings were: 1) Omission of unfamiliar details, 2) Familiarization of things strange, and 3) Rationalization of the illogical.

Why did some students omit details about hunting seals in the experiment?

Students omitted details about hunting seals because it did not fit into their cultural context and they lacked an existing schema for this kind of information.

How did students familiarize strange things in the folktale?

Students familiarized strange things by recalling activities like hunting seals as going fishing, and a canoe loaded with weapons as a robot, using familiar schemas to understand the unfamiliar.

What does rationalization of the illogical mean in Bartlett's experiment?

Rationalization of the illogical means that students unconsciously made the story logically coherent by adding terms like 'therefore' and 'because', changing the story each time they recalled it.

How does the script relate the concept of schema to existentialist views on memory?

The script relates schema to existentialist views by suggesting that long-term memories are not fixed but constantly adjusted, and that we construct the past in a process of adjustment to create a coherent self-narrative.

Who coined the term 'schema' and what did they argue about its role?

Jean Piaget coined the term 'schema' and argued that we construct our experiences into schemata to make sense of the world.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Understanding Schemas and Cognitive Processes

This paragraph delves into the concept of schemas as mental frameworks that are formed from past experiences and guide our thought patterns. It uses the example of going to a restaurant to illustrate how different people have different schemas based on their experiences. The paragraph explains assimilation, where new information that is similar to what we already know can be easily integrated into our existing schemas. In contrast, accommodation is required when we encounter completely new information that doesn't fit our existing schemas, necessitating a change in our mental frameworks. The 'war of the ghosts experiment' by Frederic Bartlett is highlighted to demonstrate how schemas can unconsciously alter our perception and memory. The experiment showed three key phenomena: the omission of unfamiliar details, the familiarization of strange things, and the rationalization of the illogical, which together indicate that our memories are not fixed but are constantly adjusted to fit our self-narrative.

05:01

🌐 Constructing Life Experiences and Creative Commons License

The second paragraph shifts focus to the idea that we construct our life experiences into schemata to make sense of the world, a concept introduced by Jean Piaget. It also discusses the publication of Sprouts videos under the Creative Commons license, which allows for free use, editing, and distribution of the videos for personal use, as well as for educational purposes by public schools, governments, and non-profit organizations. The paragraph encourages viewers to support the creators by becoming patrons and contributing to their work, emphasizing that even small donations can make a significant impact. This section serves as both an educational insight and a call to action for viewers to engage with and support the content they consume.

Keywords

💡Schema

A schema is a mental framework or pattern that is formed by past experiences. It helps us to process and understand new information by relating it to what we already know. In the video's context, schemas are likened to a kid's toy, where familiar shapes can easily fit into our understanding. The concept of going to a restaurant is used as an example, where different people have different schemas based on their experiences.

💡Assimilation

Assimilation is the cognitive process where new information is made to fit into our existing schemas or understanding of the world. The video explains that this process works well when the new information is similar to what we already know, like a square fitting into a schema that understands a triangle.

💡Accommodation

Accommodation is the process of adjusting or changing our schemas to incorporate new information that doesn't fit our existing understanding. The video uses the example of a star, which doesn't fit into the schema of shapes like squares or triangles, to illustrate the need for accommodation.

💡Cognitive Process

Cognitive processes are mental actions through which the mind processes information. The video discusses assimilation and accommodation as cognitive processes that help us understand and incorporate new experiences.

💡Memory

Memory, as discussed in the video, refers to the ability to encode, store, and retrieve information. It is highlighted in the context of how our schemas affect what we remember and how we recall information, as demonstrated in Bartlett's 'war of the ghosts experiment'.

💡Perception

Perception is the process by which the brain interprets sensory information to understand the surrounding environment. The video mentions that our schemas unconsciously alter our perception, affecting how we understand and recall experiences.

💡Experience

Experience, in the video, refers to the events or occurrences that an individual has gone through, which contribute to the formation of schemas. It is noted that our experiences shape how we assimilate and accommodate new information.

💡Familiarization

Familiarization is the process of making strange or new things seem familiar by relating them to our existing schemas. The video illustrates this with students recalling a part of a story as something they are more familiar with, like changing 'hunting seals' to 'going fishing'.

💡Rationalization

Rationalization is the act of providing a logical explanation for something that may not initially make sense. In the video, students rationalize the illogical elements of a story by adding logical connections, such as reasons for the characters' actions.

💡Cultural Context

Cultural context refers to the background of shared beliefs, values, and customs that influence how people perceive and interpret information. The video uses the example of British students not recalling details about hunting seals because it does not fit their cultural context.

💡Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on cognitive development in children. The video mentions him in relation to the concept of schemata, which he believed we construct to make sense of the world.

Highlights

A schema is a mental framework that helps us process information based on past experiences.

Schemas can be thought of as scripts that guide our expectations and actions in familiar situations.

Assimilation is the process of fitting new information into our existing schemas.

Accommodation is required when new information doesn't fit our existing schemas and requires a change in our mental framework.

Schemas can be unconsciously altered by our perception and memory, as demonstrated by Frederic Bartlett.

Bartlett's 'war of the ghosts experiment' showed how schemas affect memory recall.

The experiment involved British students recalling a native American folktale with unfamiliar cultural elements.

Students omitted details from the story that were unfamiliar and did not fit their cultural schema.

Familiarization of strange elements was observed as students recalled the story with substitutions for unfamiliar concepts.

Rationalization of illogical elements in the story occurred as students unconsciously added logical connections to make sense of it.

The experiment showed that long-term memories are not fixed but are constantly adjusted.

Bartlett's findings support the existentialist view that people construct the past in a constant process of adjustment.

Jean Piaget's concept of schemata suggests that we construct our experiences to make sense of the world.

Sprouts videos are published under the creative commons license, allowing free use for personal and educational purposes.

Support for Sprouts can be provided through Patreon, contributing to the independence and continuation of their work.

Transcripts

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 a simulation. For completely new

information, here a star this doesn't

work. Then we need accommodation

and to change the schema itself.

Assimilation 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 colourblind.

Not a million books or the best teacher

could ever truly explain red to you.

You need to experience it to accommodate the idea.

Frederic 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 robot.

This happens because when we lack 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, overtime

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 about life as a coherent string of events.

Jean Piaget who coined the term,

argued that we construct our experiences

into schemata so we can make sense of the world.

Sprouts videos are published under the creative commons

licence. That means our videos are

free and anyone can download, edit and

play them for personal use. And public schools,

governments and nonprofit organisations

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/sprouts

Even 1 dollar can make a difference.