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The Bartlett Schema

How We Make Sense of Memory​

What if memory isn’t about perfectly storing the past—but about making sense of it? That’s exactly what the British psychologist Frederic Bartlett proposed in the early 20th century. His idea of the schema changed the way we understand memory, storytelling, and even learning itself.

What Is a Schema?​

A schema is a mental framework—a structured cluster of ideas or experiences we use to understand and navigate the world. Imagine it like a script or blueprint in your mind. You have a schema for “going to the market”, for “what a story looks like”, or even for “what a hero does in a fantasy world”. These patterns help you interpret new experiences by fitting them into what you already know.

Frederic Bartlett’s Insight​

In 1932, Bartlett published Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. In it, he argued that:

  • Memory is reconstructive, not a perfect record of the past.
  • When we recall something, we actively rebuild it using pre-existing schemas.
  • Information that doesn’t fit into a schema tends to be forgotten, distorted, or reshaped to fit more comfortably into what we already believe or expect.

In one of his best-known experiments, Bartlett asked participants to read and retell a Native American story, The War of the Ghosts. Over time, people unconsciously changed the story—removing unfamiliar details, inserting cultural expectations, and reshaping it into something that made more sense to them. This wasn’t a failure of memory—it was memory at work, using schema.

Learning Is Easier When You Already Know Something​

One of the most powerful insights of schema theory is this:

The more you know, the easier it is to learn.

That might sound counterintuitive, but it’s rooted in how our brains store and connect ideas. New information “sticks” better when it has something to attach to—a related idea, a familiar pattern, a meaningful story.

A Metaphor: Lighting Torches in a Cave​

Imagine your mind as a dark, sprawling cave. At first, it's hard to see anything—just vague shapes and empty space. But every time you learn something new, it's like lighting a torch on the wall. Gradually, those flickering lights begin to reveal a structure. You notice arches, tunnels, chambers. As more torches light up, your understanding grows. The path forward becomes clearer.

But if those torches go out—if you forget, or never form the connections—the cave goes dark again. It's harder to find your way, harder to remember what was once there. Knowledge builds on itself. The more torches you light, the more visible the shape of the world becomes.

In the World of The Hundred​

These ideas aren't just theoretical—they’re embedded in the design of The Hundred. In the myth-rich world of Wendmor, each quest, character, and discovery forms part of a growing schema—an interconnected memory structure. Players engage with quizzes and storylines designed to light new torches as they explore, building on what they’ve already learned. As in real life, the more you remember, the easier it is to understand what comes next.

By integrating principles of schema theory, The Hundred offers more than a fantasy world—it offers a way to explore how memory itself works.