Question

An american accustomed to eating meals in a standard sequence of appetizers, salad, entree and dessert may be confused when trying to order a meal at an italian restaurant where the menu contains l'antipasto, il primo, il secondo, il contorno and il dolce. the diner's confusion is caused by his or her unconscious knowledge structure or mental model , or ______________, of the sequence of a meal.

Answer 1

I believe the answer is: Schema
Schema refers to the psychological structure/pattern that we used to memorize a certain category of information.
For most people, the way we absorb new information is not by complexity change the old memory with the new one, but to adjust the new information in such a way that would fit our schema.<span />