The development of schema theory and its embodiment in connectionist networks brought about a real theoretical advance in the cognitive sciences. An important property of a schema is that it is an abstract organization of experience. It constructs the objects of recognition; sometimes obvious objects, like cats, sometimes non-obvious objects, like the real self. But cognitive organization is not restricted to the formation of objects. There are other kinds of cognitive organization which link together objects but are not themselves objects. Lists, such as the alphabet or the days of the week are a good example of a very simple kind of organization of objects by serial ordination. Taxonomies are an example of a different kind of organization; the objects in a taxonomy are related through the single relationship of inclusion. A componential paradigm is another example; here objects are related through the sharing and contrasting of features.

Propositions are another means of relating objects. In a proposition something is said about something: “Sunday was rainy.” A proposition combines some number of separate schemas into a more complex organization. One has a schema for cat, for on, and for mat. The proposition “the cat is on the mat” integrates these three schemas into a new complex entity – the cat-on-mat event.