BI 207 Alison Preston: Schemas in our Brains and Minds

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Mar 12, 2025

In this discussion with Alison Preston, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin, schemas take center stage in understanding cognition. She unpacks how these mental frameworks evolve from childhood to adulthood, influencing memory and decision-making. The conversation touches on the fascinating links between neural alignments and creativity, especially during adolescence. They also explore the implications of AI on human memory and the importance of precise terminology in psychology, offering a glimpse into the complex tapestry of our cognitive processes.

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INSIGHT

Schemas: Dynamic Knowledge Structures

Schemas are predictive models involving sequential actions, differentiating them from static concepts.
They guide behavior and decision-making, going beyond simple relational knowledge structures.

INSIGHT

Differing Views on Schemas

Kira Green views schemas as static relational structures in memories, unlike Alison Preston's dynamic view.
Preston emphasizes the goal-oriented, action-driven nature of schemas.

INSIGHT

Memory's Constructive Nature and Fallibility

Memories are constructive and generalized within schemas, sometimes leading to inaccuracies.
Brains prioritize efficiency, aiming for 80% accuracy, resulting in adaptive but sometimes flawed predictions.

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The concept of a schema goes back at least to the philosopher Immanuel Kant in the 1700s, who use the term to refer to a kind of built-in mental framework to organize sensory experience. But it was the psychologist Frederic Bartlett in the 1930s who used the term schema in a psychological sense, to explain how our memories are organized and how new information gets integrated into our memory. Fast forward another 100 years to today, and we have a podcast episode with my guest today, Alison Preston, who runs the Preston Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. On this episode, we discuss her neuroscience research explaining how our brains might carry out the processing that fits with our modern conception of schemas, and how our brains do that in different ways as we develop from childhood to adulthood.

I just said, "our modern conception of schemas," but like everything else, there isn't complete consensus among scientists exactly how to define schema. Ali has her own definition. She shares that, and how it differs from other conceptions commonly used. I like Ali's version and think it should be adopted, in part because it helps distinguish schemas from a related term, cognitive maps, which we've discussed aplenty on brain inspired, and can sometimes be used interchangeably with schemas. So we discuss how to think about schemas versus cognitive maps, versus concepts, versus semantic information, and so on.

Last episode Ciara Greene discussed schemas and how they underlie our memories, and learning, and predictions, and how they can lead to inaccurate memories and predictions. Today Ali explains how circuits in the brain might adaptively underlie this process as we develop, and how to go about measuring it in the first place.

Read the transcript.

0:00 - Intro 6:51 - Schemas 20:37 - Schemas and the developing brain 35:03 - Information theory, dimensionality, and detail 41:17 - Geometry of schemas 47:26 - Schemas and creativity 50:29 - Brain connection pruning with development 1:02:46 - Information in brains 1:09:20 - Schemas and development in AI