Schema Activation

Prior knowledge leveraged on schema activation has a powerful influence on memory because knowledge is organized in long-term memory Opens in new window as webs or networks of related information. The more connections between individual items of knowledge, the better chance of retrieval.

Definition and Overview

When items of knowledge are encoded with many connections, they are easier to retrieve because more things can activate them.

For example, if you learn that the Mexican author Mariano Azuela wrote The Underdogs, you are not likely to remember it if you have no other connections to it.

Someone with a richer network might trigger The Underdogs from related pieces of information like the Mexican Revolution, Francisco Madero, Pancho Villa, and the novel Maria Luisa.

Similarly, if you were raised in the United States, you might be able to trigger information about George Washington with cues such as first president, cherry tree, Mount Vernon, Valley Forge, and many others. These networks of knowledge are called schemas Opens in new window.

Once sensory input is received in the working memory, the cognitive engagement that leads to comprehension can take place, but sometimes it may not.

The activity that occurs in the working memory Opens in new window, where new information can be encoded, or integrated, into existing knowledge, is an essential part of the learning process.

Encoding, which involves the use of strategies or frameworks for incorporating new information into an existing schema, occurs once an appropriate schema has been activated to accept it.

Therefore it is incumbent upon teachers to activate prior knowledge and present a way of organizing the new content into the established schema in the long-term store. Learning occurs when schemas Opens in new window are enlarged, expanded, or connected to other developing schema.