That is new experiences are interpreted in terms of old stories. The specific content of the stories is affected by if and how they are told to others, with the collective reconstituted memories forming the basis of the individual's identity. Repeated retelling of certain stories, thus, becomes the basis of memory, even memory for facts, beliefs, and what is traditionally considered semantic memory. One important function of a schema is to guide the drawing of inferences from text of social situations. It is a natural process to draw inferences beyond the material actually presented.
Inference drawing during comprehension has two important functions.
Social information is often gained by observing interpersonal behaviors, like body language, and than drawing inferences about those behaviors. Misconception occurs when the meaning conveyed to the hearer is different from the literal content of the message. Deceptiveness occurs if the conveyed meaning is inconsistent with the facts about the product, regardless of what the ad stated. Knowledge of more selective cognitive processes may be described as metamemory, metalinguistics, or metareasoning. Metacognition can be divided into three broad categories.