A prose retention study of 12-year-old students indicated that recall is greater for main details than for elaborations. Results are discussed in terms of models of the storage of the story and thematic materials in memory. (Author/DB)

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the relative efficiency of verbal and visual adjunct aids for concrete and abstract prose learning. For the abstract passage, verbal aids worked best and visual aids were somewhat disruptive. The concrete passage did not demonstrate the equivalency for two types of aids. (Author/PN)

Context orientation and depth of processing were tested as possible explanations for thematic organization. The process of searching for the theme of prose passages was detrimental to recall. Theme statements facilitated recall when provided prior to each passage. The theme search process was beneficial only when the correct theme was identified.…

Discourse processing involves an interaction of text based processes and prior knowledge. It was shown that college students varied in their relative employment of knowledge-based processes, and that individuals tended to be more "text bound" when they were more "stimulus bound" according to an embedded figures test.…

This study sought to determine if age-related increases in memory for prose are, in part, due to deliberate mnemonic strategies and if older children use the high order relations in prose more efficiently than younger children. (HOD)

The secondary task method is utilized to assess cognitive capacity usage during, and immediately following, interspersed mathemagenic questions of different levels. The method also assesses the relationship between this usage and prose material recalled or recognized from differing positions and different types. The experiment involved 120…

This paper provides a general description of schema-theoretic models of language comprehension and examines some extensions of such models to the study of reading. The goal of schema theory is to specify the interface between the reader and the text: to specify how the reader's knowledge interacts with and shapes the information on the page and to…

Two studies investigated whether variations in the importance of inferences and the salience of premises within a text would affect the probability that the inference would be made. Six stories of about 500 words were used, with eight variations of each story. The target inference, and its plausibility, was constant across all versions. Inference…

"Levels of processing" is an explanatory framework postulating that differences in memory processing quality or effort affect the duration of the memory trace. Using recall (immediate, one week, or two week) for connected discourse processed under three semantic and three orthographic interference conditions, as well as a noninterference…

Two studies assessed third, fifth, and seventh grade children's sensitivity to relative importance in prose. Children rated importance similarly to adults when assigned perspectives from which to read. The children's ratings were not necessarily idiosyncratic: they agreed more with each other than with adults rating the same material.…

The experiments described in this report attempt to further understanding of the storage and retrieval of factual information. In the first five experiments, organization of simple prose materials is varied. Effects upon both accuracy and order of recall are discussed in terms of retrieval strategies determined by organization. The fourth and…

Twenty subjects at each of four age levels (8, 10, 12, and 18) rated linguistic units of prose passages in terms of their importance. Third- and fifth-grade subjects did not differentiate items in terms of their relative importance to the text and at all ages such judgments were related to recall. (Author/JMB)

Recalls from five passages learned by undergraduates in the course of growing up in America were obtained. Recalls, while partial, were exact with no evidence of constructive memory. Results fit a simple model of associative chaining retrieval of passively stored surface structure units. (CHK)

This study examined the effects of familiarity of passage concepts and passage cohesion on retrieval of text information. Results showed that recall of propositions from passages with more familiar concepts was greater. Results indicate that familiarity stimulates elaboration of passage material and elaborations provide alternate retrieval…