Understanding the schematic representation of pain and general symptomatology: The contribution of the cognitive miser perspective

In this study we aimed to investigate the contribution of a model of schema use originally from social psychology, the cognitive miser perspective, to understanding pain and illness representations. Recall of pain and general symptom information was tested under either conditions of cognitive load or no load. If the cognitive miser perspective were to be applicable, schematic information would be better recalled under load, and aschematic information better recalled under no load. This was the case for pain information. However, for general symptom information cognitive load did not influence recall. It was concluded that processing pain information may be better understood from the cognitive miser perspective, but the meaning model of schema use may be more applicable to general symptoms.