ABSTRACT
One of the most consistent themes in our theories of learning and memory is that the individual’s “expectations” influence what is learned in any training situation. This theme is surely most evident in treatments of human learning. Thus, for example, when an individual is instructed via a natural-language text, we can observe that the subject acquires information that is not literally presented, but is implied on the basis of prior knowledge (e.g., Schank, 1975). The same kind of observation can be made when the individual is instructed in a variety of perceptual modes (e.g., Bartlett, 1932). It is thus common to assume that the environment is scanned and learned about in relationship to cognitive schemata (e.g., Bobrow & Norman, 1975), knowledge “frames” (Minsky, 1975), or “scripts” (Schank, 1975).
