Interactive Frames and Knowledge Schemas in Interaction: Examples from a Medical Examination/Interview

Abstract

Earlier work suggested that frame, schema and related terms could be understood as of expectation. Suggesting now that there are two distinct types of structures of expectation to which such terms have been applied, we use to refer to the anthropological/sociological notion of interactive frames of interpretation, and schema to refer to the cognitive psychological/artificial intelligence notion of knowledge schemas. Drawing on and expanding earlier analysis of talk in a pediatric interaction, we show how frames and schemas interact. Balancing and shifting examination, consultation and management frames accounts for the burden on the pediatrician who examines a child in the mother's presence. Mismatches in the pediatrician's and mother's schemas for health and cerebral palsy account for the mother's discomfort and recalcitrant concerns, and consequently for her frequent questions which trigger the frame switches.