Notes in Communication – Schema

1 Definition of Schema

In psychology and cognitive science, aschema (plural schemata or schemas) describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.

It can also be described as a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information.

Schemata influence attention and the absorption of new knowledge: people are more likely to notice things that fit into their schema, while re-interpreting contradictions to the schema as exceptions or distorting them to fit. Schemata have a tendency to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information. Schemata can help in understanding the world and the rapidly changing environment. People can organize new perceptions into schemata quickly as most situations do not require complex thought when using schema, since automatic thought is all that is required.

2 How to use Schema

We usually meet such tough questions: we need to explain a complicated concept to a new-comer who knows nothing about it. You try hard to tell the concepts in textbooks and the events happened to it, but the effect is limited since the words are abstract and not vivid to be accepted. How to explain the accurate and tremendous meanings while using fewer words? There is a good method to use schemas.

Let me give you an example. When I went toTaiwan for travelling several years ago, I have eaten the wax apple. How did I describe that to my friends? There is no use of telling the biology definition of wax apples, but I just told them my feelings with short words using schemas.

"It tastes like a bell pepper with apple flavor."

To my friends who live in North China, they must have eaten apples and bell peppers. So they can quickly imagine the flavor and texture of the wax apple. This is an application of schemas.

Schemas can simply regarded the same as the analogy and metaphor in literature. I remembered when reading Li Xiaolai's writings, he always said he used no other rhetoric except analogy. It can help replace unknown with known, replace abstract with concrete. Schemas or analogies are using the knowledge people already got, so people can accept them quickly. That's why Li's articles have a relatively high level but with quite simple expressions.

3 Strengths and Weaknesses

Using schemas is a quick action. So it may lead us to misunderstand people who we don't know much. For instance, when we know one from a certain hometown place, we will use schemas to judge him or her. It easily offends others and is also harmful for ourselves.

Schemas using does have meaningful influence for humans. Newton once said, "if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." This is the core of schemas. Schemas are patterns we already have from our past experience, so our minds don't need to do much work. It is a way of low cost and high production.

In conclusion, by understanding the conceptof schemas, we can take use of it. To other people, we can use their schemas to induce their emotions in situations such as selling products. To ourselves, we can know ourselves better and upgrade schemas often to make better decisions.

中文翻譯：

1 基模的定義

在心理學(xué)和認(rèn)知科學(xué)中氨肌，基模（有的翻譯作“圖式”）描述了一種思考或行為方式，就是如何將信息組織分類(lèi)和理解它們之間的關(guān)系。

基模的另一種解釋是先入為主的思維框架，如何理解這個(gè)世界的各個(gè)方面以及如何組織和接受新的信息霍狰。

基模影響著我們的注意力和如何消化吸收新知識(shí)：人們往往傾向于接受符合自己基模的新知識(shí)挠将，而對(duì)不符合基模的知識(shí)很難消化吸收忘渔”感簦基模不太容易改變，即使面對(duì)著很有矛盾的資訊锦秒÷恫矗基模可以幫助我們了解世界并且應(yīng)對(duì)快速變化的環(huán)境旅择。人們使用基模的時(shí)候不會(huì)很復(fù)雜的思考惭笑，頭腦就直接組織出一些新的觀點(diǎn)，可以說(shuō)是自動(dòng)化思考了生真。

2基模怎么用

生活和工作中沉噩，我們實(shí)際上經(jīng)常會(huì)遇到這種情形：在短時(shí)間內(nèi)要向0基礎(chǔ)或?qū)δ硞€(gè)事物一無(wú)所知的人解釋一個(gè)復(fù)雜的概念，這對(duì)所有人來(lái)說(shuō)都是一個(gè)困難的任務(wù)柱蟀。而你需要讓對(duì)方明白你的概念解釋與事件描述川蒙，如果你一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)具體化地闡述過(guò)程或者來(lái)龍去脈，效果往往并不好长已，因?yàn)槲淖直旧淼谋憩F(xiàn)力總是有限的畜眨，你該如何才能在短時(shí)間內(nèi)裝進(jìn)去這么多內(nèi)容呢?

有一個(gè)好辦法：利用基模原理！

舉個(gè)例子吧术瓮。我?guī)啄昵叭ヅ_(tái)灣旅游的時(shí)候康聂，吃到過(guò)當(dāng)?shù)氐乃忟F胞四√裰回來(lái)我是怎么跟身邊沒(méi)吃過(guò)的人解釋呢？說(shuō)專(zhuān)業(yè)的植物學(xué)簡(jiǎn)介沒(méi)有用辜伟，我只用簡(jiǎn)短的話語(yǔ)描述了我的感覺(jué)氓侧，用上了基模。

“嘗起來(lái)像蘋(píng)果味的燈籠椒~”

對(duì)于我身邊生活在中國(guó)北方的人來(lái)講导狡，蘋(píng)果和燈籠椒是肯定吃過(guò)的甘苍，蘋(píng)果的味道，燈籠椒的質(zhì)感烘豌，他們就可以立馬想象的到载庭。這就是基模的使用。

基模與文學(xué)修辭手法中的類(lèi)比和隱喻，其實(shí)可以簡(jiǎn)單地認(rèn)為是一個(gè)事囚聚。我以前看過(guò)李笑來(lái)的文章靖榕，他說(shuō)自己不喜歡用修辭手法，唯獨(dú)就用一種顽铸，就是類(lèi)比茁计。可以用已知替代未知谓松，用具體代替抽象星压，基模用的是人們已有的知識(shí)，接受起來(lái)會(huì)特別快鬼譬。所以娜膘，這就是李笑來(lái)的文章用詞很簡(jiǎn)單但讀起來(lái)又覺(jué)得很高級(jí)的道理。

3 基模讓我們有什么劣勢(shì)优质，又有什么優(yōu)勢(shì)

使用基模竣贪，意味著我們的頭腦里快速地做了判斷。所以它可能讓我們誤會(huì)剛認(rèn)識(shí)還不熟悉的人巩螃。比如演怎，當(dāng)我們知道一個(gè)人是來(lái)自某個(gè)地方的時(shí)候，就會(huì)很容易從基模中找出對(duì)他或她的評(píng)判印象避乏，俗稱開(kāi)“地圖炮”爷耀。很容易得罪人，也對(duì)我們自己不利拍皮。

使用基模畏纲，確實(shí)對(duì)人類(lèi)也有很重大的意義。牛頓曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)：“如果說(shuō)我看得比別人更遠(yuǎn)些春缕，那是因?yàn)槲艺驹诰奕说募绨蛏系琳汀！边@就是基模的核心之義锄贼∑被遥基模是我們已經(jīng)從過(guò)去的經(jīng)驗(yàn)中得到的固定模式，所以我們的大腦不用做太多的處理宅荤，這就是一種低成本高產(chǎn)出的方式屑迂。

最后總結(jié)一下，今天通過(guò)了解基模的概念冯键，我們將來(lái)可以學(xué)著使用它惹盼。對(duì)他人，我們可以用基模去在某些場(chǎng)合惫确，比如銷(xiāo)售中手报，影響他們的情緒蚯舱，達(dá)到我們的目的。對(duì)自己掩蛤，我們可以有更好的自我了解枉昏，時(shí)時(shí)更新基模，去讓自己做更好的判斷揍鸟。