A schema is best understood as a statistically defined concept. Schematic concept formation consists of abstracting the common elements or properties of a defined class in a schema. Thereafter, both discrimination and retention are facilitated, since only deviations from the schema need be processed for any particular class exemplar. In the…

In the course of two experiments, groups of kindergarten, second, fourth, sixth grade and college students received several discrimination problems to investigate hypothesis testing behavior. (Authors/MB)