What is Schema?
Piaget believed that the mind has structures in a similar way that they body does. Piaget created the term scheme or schema for the organizing structures people use to think or guide behavior. Schema develops and changes with experience. For example, Suzy Q might have a Great Dane named Mickey. Suzy Q might go next door to her neighbors and sees their pet Mastiff and call it Mickey too. Later on Suzy Q and her mother go to the zoo and sees a pony and Suzy Q shouts, "Mickey!" Her mother would have to clarify that neither the Mastiff or the pony is Mickey. After several experiences like these, Suzy Q finally forms an accurate schema for dogs and another schema for ponies.
The Process of Adaptation:
Adaptation is the process of changing schemes in response to experience. This process occurs through two ways:
Assimilation: It is the cognitive process by which new information is understood in relation with an existing schema. Lets say Suzy Q has experiences: sees new things (cow) or sees old things in new ways, and hears things. She tries to fit these new experiences or stimuli into the schemata she has at the time. Suzy Q is driving back home from being out shopping with her mother all day. Along the way, they pass a field full of cows. Suzy Q looks at the cows (stimulus) and says, "Those are dogs." Suzy Q, seeing the several objects (cows) in the field, filtered through her gathering of schemata until she found one that seemed like it could include the object. To Suzy Q, the objects (cows) had all of the same characteristics of a dog, so it fit in her dog schema. This is how the child concluded that the objects were dogs. The stimuli (cows) was assimilated into the dog schema. Assimilation occurs more often that one would assume. The process of assimilation allows for the growth of schemata.
Accommodation: However, if new information does not fit within an existing schema, the child must modify that schema, which is the process called accommodation. After Suzy Q's mother told her that the objects (cows) were not dogs, Suzy Q must take the new information (cows) and accommodate her schema to the new knowledge. A new schema had to be created for cows and she had to modify her schema for dogs.
Assimilation: It is the cognitive process by which new information is understood in relation with an existing schema. Lets say Suzy Q has experiences: sees new things (cow) or sees old things in new ways, and hears things. She tries to fit these new experiences or stimuli into the schemata she has at the time. Suzy Q is driving back home from being out shopping with her mother all day. Along the way, they pass a field full of cows. Suzy Q looks at the cows (stimulus) and says, "Those are dogs." Suzy Q, seeing the several objects (cows) in the field, filtered through her gathering of schemata until she found one that seemed like it could include the object. To Suzy Q, the objects (cows) had all of the same characteristics of a dog, so it fit in her dog schema. This is how the child concluded that the objects were dogs. The stimuli (cows) was assimilated into the dog schema. Assimilation occurs more often that one would assume. The process of assimilation allows for the growth of schemata.
Accommodation: However, if new information does not fit within an existing schema, the child must modify that schema, which is the process called accommodation. After Suzy Q's mother told her that the objects (cows) were not dogs, Suzy Q must take the new information (cows) and accommodate her schema to the new knowledge. A new schema had to be created for cows and she had to modify her schema for dogs.
Piaget coined several terms that cognitive scientists still use today. Schema, adaptation, assimilation, and accommodation were a few. Two other terms that are well known are equilibrium and disequilibrium.
Equilibrium: A state of balance between assimilation and accommodation. Piaget believed that human beings seek equilibrium - we want the world to make sense, so we try to restore balance by creating new schemas or adapting existing ones.
Disequilibrium: A state of imbalance between assimilation and accommodation. This is when new information or physical experience cannot be understood in terms of what is already known.