Re: Minimalism/Schema/Intuition (#954649)

[wburns -at- MICRON -dot- COM]

Jane writes:

>In linguistics, we worked with the idea of "schema" which is not
>quite intuition. It's more of "shared experience" as applied to
>culture, usually. Software documentation makes use of schema --- as
>writers we have to constantly assess whether our readers/users share
>that common experience / knowledge, or whether we should take the
>time to explain things in greater detail.
>
In addition to "shared experience," schemas also comprise webs of association
that go along with that experience. As I remember, schema theory is used in
computer sciences for developing scripts (perhaps for AIs or something). One of
the most well-know studies is commonly referred to as the "restaurant script."
It essentially demonstrates that a simple experience such as going to a
restaurant involves many associations based upon an individual's previous
experiences. These experiences are shared in the sense that they are largely
based on cultural factors (such as the fact that most western restaurants have a
menu, wait staff, sometimes a maitre d' or some other host).

I just ran a quick search for information on schema theory. One URL in
particular has some bibliographic information that could prove helpful.

        http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/people/scaruffi/mind/part1.html

Bill Burns
Assembly Documentation Supervisor
wburns -at- micron -dot- com
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