Recognition Memory for Easy and Difficult Text

Abstract

A recognition memory paradigm was used to study the effect of text difficulty on memory for practical stimuli. In the first two studies, passages drawn from driving regulations were compared with passages from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) materials; in the third study, material was selected from two psychology textbooks that were rated in different categories of difficulty. The authors expected that in each comparison the more difficult text would require more cognitive processing and, as a result, would be stored in a more elaborate way than would material from the easier text. After reading passages drawn from both levels of difficulty, the subjects were given a test that included items categorized as verbatim, paraphrases, and correct or incorrect inferences. The results of the three studies showed a difference in recognition of item types as a function of stimulus materials. Recognition rates for the easier passages provide more evidence of verbatim or surface memory than do the rates for the IRS passage and the difficult psychology text.