Rehearsal is a form of self-talk used to support short-term memory. Historically, the study of rehearsal development has diverged from the study of self-talk more generally. The current experiment examines whether two characteristics of self-talk (impact of task difficulty and self-talk's narrative vs. planning purpose) are also observed in…

The study's goals were twofold: (a) to examine the effectiveness of narrating an angry experience, compared with relying on distraction or mere reexposure to the experience, for anger reduction across childhood and adolescence, and (b) to identify the features of narratives that are associated with more and less anger reduction for younger and…

Although children's early language skills have been found to predict literacy outcomes, little is known about the role of preschool oral narrative skills in the pathway between language and emergent literacy or how these associations differ by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. The current study uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to…

In comprehending stories, adults create mental models from which they follow the actions of the characters from the characters' different mental vantage points. Using a novel methodology, this study is the first to examine when children attain the narrative ability to track the mental perspective of characters. That is, when do children follow…

Investigated the role of parental interaction styles on children's developing skill at providing contextual orientation in personal experience narratives. Eighteen monthly narratives were elicited from toddlers. The children's increasing skill at independently providing context about when and where was correlated with mothers' frequency of using…

Investigates the hypothesis that older adults remember prose less well than young adults because they are less sensitive to the structure of prose passages. Results of studies using stories, essays, and essay summaries suggest that the old are as sensitive to passage structure as the young but recall less information. (Author/CB)

Examines age-related predictive relationships among an array of psychometric intellectual ability markers and text recall performance. Women from three age groups (ranging from 21 to 78 years) read and recalled four narratives at three delay intervals and completed a battery of intellectual ability tests. (Author/CB)

Studied the gestures of blind, sighted, and blindfolded sighted 10- through 12-year olds as they engaged in narration, direction giving, or conservation tasks. Found that blind children produced gestures, though not in all contexts in which sighted children produced gestures; and that blind children's gestures resembled sighted children's gestures…

When 54 second graders, 54 fifth graders, and 54 college students listened to stories that varied in extent of discontinuity, even the second graders showed an ability to detect discontinuity. Sensitivity varied with extent and location of discontinuity, and with variations in instructions and titles of stories. Verbal reports may underestimate…

Used story grammar to analyze pretend play productions of 46 children of 4-8 years. Results showed structural parallels between pretend play and stories for 76 percent of subjects. Older subjects' play was episodic and younger subjects' was preepisodic. (RJC)

Explores the narratives produced by children 3 1/2 to 9 1/2 years of age in a seminaturalistic setting and assesses the adequacy of the children's orientation to context. (Author/MP)

Examined preschool children's recall of deictic verbs of motion presented within stories either consistently or inconsistently with the protagonist's viewpoint. Found that 3- and 4-year-olds accurately recalled verbs of motion (come, go, bring, take) that were consistent with the protagonist's viewpoint but made substitution errors of…

This study examined the effects of the children's TV program Arthur on the development of narrative skills over an academic year for Spanish-speaking English-language learners. In October, February, and June of their kindergarten year, children were asked to tell a story, in English, prompted by 3 pictures. Before the 2nd and 3rd assessments, half…

Compared narrative representations from low SES maltreated and nonmaltreated preschoolers. Found that maltreated preschoolers portrayed parents and children as responding less often than did nonmaltreated preschoolers, yet portrayed themselves as stepping into the story more often to relieve children's distress. Abused children portrayed the most…

Two experiments were conducted to describe effects of age and task difficulty on referential cohesion of story retellings. It was hypothesized that increased task difficulty would lead to higher error rates for all subject groups: preschoolers, first graders, and adults. Results indicated higher incidence of errors with videotape than with verbal…