Cognitive Structures

How is knowledge of the external world mentally represented by the human mind? One theory, widely endorsed by psychologists, is that human knowledge is organized around symbolic, cognitive structures that form interconnected sets, which together represent what is referred to as a “schema.” For example, each person likely possesses separate symbolic, mental representations for the symbolic knowledge structures teacher, lecture, textbook, desk, pen, paper, classroom, and chalkboard. In combination these symbolic knowledge structures form a single coherent schema, which represents people's knowledge of a class. Thus, a schema is a “cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus, including its attributes and the relations among those attributes” (Fiske 1995, 161). Conveniently, schema can be subdivided on the basis of the type of cognitive structure under consideration. In this regard, researchers have investigated scripts (i.e., representation of a sequence of events), person schemas (i.e., representation of a person), relational schemas (i.e., representation of an individual's behavior toward another), self-schemas (i.e., representation of one's self), and prototypes (i.e., representation of a category).

Regardless of their form, functionally schemas perform a similar set of operations for people. Schemas allow people to direct their attention to relevant aspects of their surroundings, assist them in forming judgments about stimuli in their environment, and assist them in generating adaptive responses to their current circumstances. For instance, without the prerequisite schema for the symbolic knowledge structures teacher, lecture, and blackboard, a student may not know where to direct his or her attention during a lecture (e.g., information written on the blackboard), nor may he or she understand what behavior is appropriate and inappropriate within this setting (e.g., raising one's hand to ask a question). As a result, schemas are critical when attempting to understand how humans regulate their interactions with the external world.

Under the general rules of information-processing theories, investigators have applied current knowledge regarding schemas to help understand leadership phenomena. Unlike the focus of other leadership approaches, the focus of information-processing work has been to discern how the acquisition, storage, and use of particular schemas influence relevant leadership processes (e.g., a leader's behavior or a follower's perceptions).