Time and energy are saved, rumination and doubt are reduced, and nothing important is lost. But there is an obvious cost to our reliance upon the scripts, schemas, and other knowledge structures that help us interpret our world. When the cognitive representations we happen to choose or are led to employ turn out to be inaccurate in important respects, or when we employ them inappropriately (two almost inevitable problems whenever we venture into new social or intellectual terrain), the results are far less salutary. We are bound to make errors in interpretation or judgment, and we are apt to
...more

