Schemas, Working Memory, and High Element Interactivity Material

Schemas, Working Memory, and High Element Interactivity Material
High element interactivity material, by its very nature, must be processed
simultaneously in working memory. It cannot be processed element by
individual element and still retain its meaning. One might assume that the
obvious way human cognitive architecture would evolve to handle such
material would be to develop a suYciently large working memory to handle
many interacting elements simultaneously. Our cognitive architecture did
not, of course, follow this route. For reasons discussed later, humans have
not developed a large working memory when dealing with new information.
As a consequence of our limited capacity working memory, we are not able
Evolution of human cognitive architecture 223to process novel, high element interactivity material. When faced with novel
information that contains many interacting elements, we inevitably fail to
understand it. Understanding requires all interacting elements to be
processed simultaneously, at least at some point, and when confronted
with many interacting elements, processing all of them simultaneously in
working memory is impossible. As indicated earlier, if we feel impelled or
motivated to process such information, the best that can be done is to rote
learn some aspects of the material.
Rather than develop a large working memory to handle novel,
information-rich, high element interactivity material, our cognitive architec-
ture has evolved to deal with such information by first integrating it into
schemas held in long-term memory. Interacting elements can be incorpor-
ated within a schema and that schema can then be treated as a single element
within working memory. Because those schemas can be processed in
working memory as a single element, they eliminate the problem of a
limited working memory. Our cognitive architecture has evolved so that
very high element interactivity material encompassing large amounts of
information can only be handled when incorporated in schemas. It follows
that such material can only be fully processed in working memory after
extensive learning has occurred, sometimes over very long periods of time.
Until learning through schema acquisition and automation has taken place,
the human cognitive system cannot adequately deal with very complex, high
element interactivity material. After learning, such information rich material
is handled easily and smoothly