A folk model of the mind

Abstract

A cultural model is a cognitive schema that is intersubjectively shared by a social group. Such models typically consist of a small number of conceptual objects and their relations to each other. For example, Rumelhart (1980), following Fillmore (1977), describes the schema – and cultural model – of buying something as made up of the purchaser , the seller , the merchandise , the price , the sale , and the money . There are several relationships among these parts; there is the interaction between the purchaser and the seller , which involves the communication to the buyer of the price , perhaps bargaining , the offer to buy , the acceptance of sale , the transfer of ownership of the merchandise and the money , and so on. This model is needed to understand not just buying , but also such cultural activities and institutions as lending, renting, leasing, gypping, salesmanship, profit making, stores, ads , and so on. Cognitive schemas tend to be composed of a small number of objects – at most seven plus or minus two – because of the constraints of human short-term memory (Miller 1956; Wallace 1961). For example, to judge if some event is an instance of “buying” something, the person making the judgment must decide whether there has been a purchaser, seller , some merchandise with a price , an offer , and an acceptance , along with the appropriate transfer . Since all these criteria must be held in mind simultaneously to make this judgment with any rapidity, the criteria cannot exceed the limits of short-term memory.

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