Wordiness in Retelling Narratives
J. W. Mann · South African Journal of Psychology · 1984
Two experiments deal with elaboration of narratives. In a preliminary experiment concerned with accurate recall, 30 Ss tend to reproduce a story in a shortened form. In the main experiment, 344 Ss have to rewrite a story to make it more interesting. The 2 × 2 × 2 design involves two different stories with the same structure and the inclusion or exclusion of two sentences expressing transition. Ss tend to lengthen stories and lengthening depends on the story presented. Lengthiness is not affected by the absence of transitional structure.