Cognitive Structures in Human Story Comprehension and Memory,

Abstract

This research examines the effects of structure and content variables in memory and comprehension of prose passages. The passages utilizied represent a large class of simple narrative stories containing a setting, main character, problem to be solved, plot sequence, and resolution. A process model for the comprehension of these stories is proposed which assumes that stories are encoded in a hierarchical organizational framework which represents the abstract structural relationships of the plot. The implications of the model for the quality and characteristics of subjects' memory for stories is tested in a series of experiments.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1975
Accession Number
ADA022237

Entities

People

  • Perry W. Thorndyke

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Behavior And Behavior Mechanisms
  • Comprehension
  • Personality
  • Sequences

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Computer Science.
  • Organizational Psychology.