Script
A schema for an event: the standard sequence of actions a familiar situation follows.
What it means
A script is a specialized schema representing the stereotyped temporal sequence of events and roles in a routine situation, such as dining out or visiting a doctor. Scripts let people anticipate what comes next, infer unstated steps, and act fluently in familiar settings, filling in 'default' actions that were never explicitly observed or stated. Because comprehension leans on the script, people often falsely recall script-typical events that did not actually occur in a particular episode, and they notice deviations from the expected order. Scripts develop with experience and culture, which is why the 'same' situation is navigated differently across communities. They are central to story understanding, planning, and early efforts in artificial intelligence to model commonsense knowledge.
Examples
Recounting a meal out, people often 'remember' being handed a menu or paying the bill even when those steps were never mentioned, because the restaurant script supplies them.
Arriving for a job interview, you know to give your name at reception, wait, shake hands, and answer questions — nobody explains the order, the script supplies it.
A visitor stands waiting to be seated at a café where everyone else orders at the counter; the script he brought from home fits the wrong country.
First described in Schank & Abelson (1977).