Studies of Retention of Connected Discourse
Norman J. Slamecka · The American Journal of Psychology · 1959
The tradition of using nonsense-syllables as items for the study of retention is understandable, since meaningfulness and prior experience are controlled for all subjects (Ss). The use of unconnected words as items is also widespread, since they afford control over sequential dependencies and units of ideas. The bulk of the studies on retention make use, therefore of these kinds of materials. What light, however, do such studies cast upon the retention of material that is meaningful and familiar and connected? Do the variables that govern retention of a list of nonsense-syllables also govern rote retention of ordinary speech? One is hesitant to make any. statement about this after a consideration of the available evidence. References to the literature on retention reveal a relative paucity of research focusing upon connected discourse, particularly upon its rote retention.' It has been suggested that the study of connected materials is a domain separate from that of unconnected, and that retention should be measured in terms of idea-units or logical memory.2 Such an approach is possible, of course, but it is equally as legitimate to ask whether the retention of a passage of prose could not be analyzed in much the same manner as is the classical serial list. Retention of a list of nonsense-syllables cannot be scored on the basis of idea-units, but any sort of verbal material can be scored for its rote retention. If it is found that the two 'domains' share some common governing variables, the generality of prediction would be extended, and the two types of stimulus-materials could be treated as one. It is the purpose of the present paper to report some exploratory studies of the verbatim recall of prose, as a function of three classic variables that have been found to govern retention of unconnected materials. It was also desired to assess the adequacy of the scoring system devised to measure recall.