The use of schemata in the acquisition and transfer of knowledge

A learning theory based on "memory schemata" is presented. The theory assumes knowledge substructures are shared by multiple representations of information from diverse contexts. These substructures, or schemata, are concepts that occur together and act as unitary, higher-order concepts. When knowledge is represented in terms of a schema, associations from the schema to additional concepts specify the detailed information for that context. This organization entails costs and benefits for acquisition and retention of new information utilizing schema. Using a familiar encoding structure facilitates memory access at storage and retrieval time. Multiple uses of the shared structure produce interference among concepts. Predictions of the theory are tested in two prose learning transfer experiments. Experiment 1 demonstrates simultaneous effects of facilitation and interference in learning diverse information conforming to a single schema. In experiment 2 facilitation was preserved while interference was eliminated by increasing discriminability among competing contexts. Results confirm predictions of the theory.