Distinctiveness of encoding: The effects of paraphrasing and drawing inferences on memory from prose.

Abstract

Examined in 2 experiments with 236 undergraduates the possibility that readers would differentially recall passage material as a result of differing levels of processing during reading. It was hypothesized that as the level of reader schema–text base interaction increased Ss would generate greater numbers of idea units and logical intrusions. Exp I varied the schema–text base interaction through tasks designed to increase interaction of Ss' existing schemata with the text material. In Exp II, an additional factor of student compliance with the tasks was examined. Results support the hypotheses and indicate that what Ss remembered from reading passages was determined by the activities they engaged in during reading. Activities requiring a restatement of the semantic base of prose resulted in high rates of idea unit recall; activities requiring the formulation of logical extensions of prose resulted in higher rates of logical intrusions in free recall. (32 ref)

Processes in Reading Comprehension and the Teaching of Comprehension

“…The paraphrasing groups performed better on the posttest. Similar findings were reported by Glover, Plake, Roberts, Zimmer, and Palmere (1981). In that study, students were led to paraphrase paragraphs, make logical extension statements, study model statements, or define key words while reading a passage.…”

Memory for Prose: Relational and Lexical Item-Specific Processing for Intentional Recall

“…This result confirms the outcomes of a wide variety of studies on memory for prose (e.g., Glover, Bruning, & Plake, 1982;Glover et al, 1981;Reder, 1980;Williams, 1984) and presents evidence contradictory to aspects of the hypothesis set forth by Einstein et al (1984).…”

“…Typically, processing activities, such as listing key terms, answering lower level factual questions, and copying parts of the text-activities that focus readers' attention on superficial or highly specific elements of text-have not been effective in enhancing readers' memory for prose (e.g., Andre & Womack, 1978;Glover, Plake, Roberts, Zimmer, & Palmere, 1981). For example, Glover et al (1981) contrasted readers' memory for text in several conditions including a key word condition, in which subjects listed "key words" found in paragraphs; a model statements condition, in which subjects identified statements in each paragraph as fitting a model; and a logical inference condition, in which readers focused on the relational aspects of paragraphs in order to draw logical inferences. The results indicated that the key words and model statements conditions obtained recall scores highly similar to those of a control group, while subjects in the logical inferences condition recalled significantly greater amounts of text.…”

The role of elaborative and schema processes in story memory

“…Along this line, Glover, Plake, Roberts, Zimmer, and Palmere (1981) demonstrated that tasks designed to induce semantic elaboration after initial comprehension has been completed (paraphrasing and logical extension) do produce better memory. The results reported here show that "on-line" elaboration necessitated by difficulty with the surface features of the text also provides a more memorable encoding.…”