schema
n. countablen. a mental map or plan that helps you organize information. It is a pattern you use to understand how things work or how they are connected.
n. a mental framework or conceptual structure that facilitates the organization and interpretation of information. Often refers to a formal representation of a plan or theory in logic and cognitive science.
Your brain uses a schema to understand what happens at a restaurant.
The researcher developed a complex schema to categorize the different types of logical fallacies found in the debate transcripts.
In cognitive psychology, a schema allows an individual to process vast amounts of sensory data by filtering it through pre-existing categories and expectations derived from past experiences.
Unadapted borrowing from Latin schēma, from Ancient Greek σχῆμα (skhêma, “form, shape”). Doublet of scheme.
The plural form is either 'schemas' or the more formal, Greek-derived 'schemata'.