At first it's all chaos. But even within the first few hours of life, the newborn learns to recognize a human face as more than blobs of dark and light. In a matter of days, the infant recognizes and responds with pleasure to mother's face. This miraculous process of organizing and creating meaning out of the world involves what psychologists call forming schemas. Schemas categorize and organize information.
Schemas provide a short-cut to recognition and understanding.
The human brain, like a computer, can instantaneously process information through the formation of schemas. Schemas classify a wide range of information into categories. We form schemas about the sequence of events which allow us to carry out complex routines without thinking much about it. For example, you have probably driven home from work without paying attention to how you got there. Most likely, you followed the traffic laws, navigated a series of turns and maneuvers, and made it home safely.