The effects of organization and instructional set on story memory∗

Abstract

The goal of this study was to validate a set of predictions about story memory, derived from our story grammar approach to comprehension. The grammar describes the higher order structures regulating the organization and retrieval of incoming story information. These structures, defined by a basic set of rewrite rules, specify the types of information which should occur in stories and the types of logical relations which should connect story components. The results of this study showed that these higher order structures exert a significant influence over the accuracy of story memory, in addition to having a pronounced effect on the reorganization of stories not conforming to the rules generated by our grammar. The implications of the deliberate use of these story structures in retaining incoming information were illustrated and suggestions for future research were discussed.

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