Chih-Yin Hsiao
Department of Agricultural Extension National Taiwan University
This article reviews studies of symptom perception and illness schema. It focuses on investigations of how individuals process internal information and the effects of illness schema on symptom perception. The empirical evidence shows that individuals are not always accurate in bodily sensation. The basic assumption of symptom perception is similar to object perception. There are three aspects of symptom perception, including competition of cues, selective search and inference. Illness schema might affect any aspect of symptom perception. Individuals tend to search and use schema-consistent information to explain bodily sensations. Illness schema guides the search and explanation of information. It also helps individuals to recognize a specific disease when most symptoms match the schema they hold.
Keywords: symptom perception, illness schema