This study explored whether or not there was an increase in understanding from one literary genre to another, whether or not this growth was apparent from one grade level to another, and whether the growth followed Northrop Frye's suggestion of order: romance, comedy, tragedy, and satire. The high school subjects were asked to read "Merchant of…

A rating-scale instrument was devised to clarify the relationship between children's judgments of naughtiness of a story character and the story's description of the character's intent and the consequences of his behavior. (Author)