Schemas and Culture

Mental Representations and Schemas relate to culture because both of them are a set of ideas that we use to experience reality, Mental representations serve the purpose to help us understand better either concepts or ideas, by creating mental pictures of what we hear or say, cultures are created when these Mental Representations have become accepted by the majority of the population of a certain region, Mental Representations are very can be very effective teaching tools because they use the concept of imagery, and this concept has been used by some of the most successful people in history, for example Albert Einstein and Stephen Covey both used imagery one for solving problems and the other to create positive images that would help him reach his goals and improve his live.
We all use Mental Representations in our daily life, whenever we hear a story, or the description of some place we have never been to, we create images in our brain about of those places or events this can be also seen in the different cultures around the world, whenever we hear the stories of Greek mythology or the stories of ancient Mayan Cultures we create a movie in our brain with the characters of these stories, so Mental Representation has played a great role in our Cultural evolution as a specie.
Schemas is the way we react to situations based on our previous experiences, whenever we avoid to eat a certain food or to buy an item of a certain brand we are using a Schema, if we don't eat the food or buy the product its because we had a previous negative experience about those situations, we have been creating Schemas since our childhood and all of them adapted and transformed themselves into the type of things we do to this day, the impact of Schemas in the history of cultures its enormous since its by the use of Schemas that we developed language, our use of tools, writing, reading, all of these things that are essential in the development of any culture.
When it comes to teaching Schemas are very important because whatever impression a student has about a topic early on in life it will greatly influence his future concepts of the world, so its very important that teachers know how they can use Schemas to create a healthier more positive outlook on their world.
Both Mental Representations, and Schemas have played a critical role in our cultural evolution and both are an innate tool that we have used for many generations to create the societies we know today, if we could improve both of these so that students can develop their full potential the future of mankind would be brighter.