Accommodation is defined as

• A. Adjusting schemata based on new information
• B. Incorporating new information into existing schema
• C. A type of consequence in behavior analysis
• D. The initial reflex stage

Answer: (A)

Accommodation is the process of adjusting your existing schemas to fit new information that doesn’t match what you already think. When you run into something that can’t be explained by your current understanding, you change or create a new schema so your knowledge lines up with reality. This is different from assimilation, which is taking new information and fitting it into what you already know without changing your underlying schema. For example, if a child believes all four-legged animals are dogs and then encounters a cat, they either modify the dog idea or form a new cat schema so that cats aren’t lumped in with dogs. The other options don’t describe this cognitive change: one refers to a behavioral-analytic outcome, and the other to an early reflex stage, neither of which captures the idea of altering schemas to accommodate new information.