Meaning schemas

The purpose of meaning schemas

Meaning schemas are mental constructs that help us to make sense of (descriptive function) and to engage effectively with (directive function) the world around us.  They do this by helping us to: 

• identify and prioritise personally salient goals

• anticipate agentic actions that will increase our chances of achieving those goals

• characterise, predict and prioritise phenomena within our environments

• select appropriate responsive actions to these events and predict the outcomes

• communicate effectively and efficiently with others in order to engage in collaborative actions

I'm using the term 'meaning schema' to include all the various ways in which our brains use past experience to inform present understanding and determine future action.  Meaning schemas can exist on a spectrum ranging from episodic to generic depending on the extent to which they incorporate information from a range of previous experiences.

• Episodic schemas ('Is this like what happened then?') rely heavily on patterns within a specific experience for predictive comparison, either because the individual has limited experience of that context or because a specific past experience has been assigned particularly high significance by the individual (e.g. trauma)

• Iterative schemas ('Is this like what has happened often?') are based on patterns within repeated similar experiences or situations for predictive comparison

• Habitual schemas ('Is this like what tends to happen?') are based on estimating or averaging the most likely characteristics and outcomes of a variety of similar experiences

• Generic schemas ('Is this like what should happen?') are more abstracted conceptual models of experience which may take the form of explicit rules or belief structures

Schemas can also be divided into world-view schemas (beliefs about how the world works) and self-view schemas (beliefs about ourselves).

Another category of schemas worth thinking about is meta-schemas. These are schemas that we use to manage our own meaning schemas (models of meta-cognition). They determine the loops we are likely to favour in the reflective process. One benefit of ReCoCa analysis  is that it also facilitates meta-reflection — reflection on how you reflect.