For example, it is known that experts and novices differ in terms of how their information is held in long-term memory. This information is better organized and better cross-referenced in experts than it is in novices. Experts typically have clearly-defined groups of concepts; novices tend to relate various concepts to various others, often with no clear distinction. Experts also tend to organize by deep structure (the underlying, significant elements common to the different concepts) while novices tend to organize by surface structure (the elements of the concepts that seem similar upon immediate inspection, but that are not ultimately fundamental to their degree of relevance).

Furthermore, it has been shown experts are able to take advantage of better-defined schemata and scripts. Schemata are frameworks, stored in long-term memory, that generalize information for a particular situation. Scripts are schemata that pertain to events or action-sequences. Experts have simply been exposed to a greater number of similar situations that reinforce these schemata and scripts, so they are well-constructed. The advantage of this lies in memory storage and recall. To the extent that a detail is script or schema-consistent, it can be placed into the framework during encoding, and working memory will be less compromised. In terms of recall, to the extent that elements within a particular scenario fit a script or schema, they can be extrapolated more easily as well.