in the perceptual cycle hypothesis, a structured body of knowledge (a pre-understanding) that shapes the expectations of a person in the new situation. The expectations then guide the individual’s exploration and action. For example, a person who has received negative consequences each time he or she was in contact with the police may avoid the police station because he or she feels that it will bear bad news. Since the police station has never been encountered, the schema the individual has of the police may extend to things associated with the police. Anticipatory schemas are dynamic rather than static, with new information continually being added die to new experiences. |defined in 1976 by U.S. cognitive psychologist Ulric Neisser (1928- )|
ANTICIPATORY SCHEMA: “The individual’s anticipatory schema led him or her to sit down, because the desks, chairs, and whiteboard led him or her to believe that although the room was new, it was a classroom.”