The influence of instruction on verbatim and content text recall

Abstract

This investigation focuses on text recall in eight‐ and nine‐year old children. The main focus was on whether two different sets of instructions had a differential influence: one set instructed students to focus on an orally presented text verbatim, and the other instructed students to focus on its content. A differential influence on verbatim and content recall might indicate separate storage of verbatim and gist information, and could provide evidence for two subprocesses of text processing – that is, for construction and integration. The instructions were administered either before or after hearing the text, and recall was tested again one week later. The results showed differential instruction effects on verbatim and content recall. These effects depended on the time of instruction. Verbatim instruction had an enhancing effect on verbatim recall, both when instructions were given before and when given after text presentation. Content instruction given after text presentation had a suppressing effect on verbatim recall, but involved no advantage for content recall. Content recall was not suppressed by verbatim instruction at any time of instruction. Thus, the processing of content seems to be less situated than the processing of verbatim information.

Notes

1. In German elementary schools, two age groups usually attend a given grade: early beginners and regular to late beginners. Early beginners may be up to six months younger than the rest of the students in their grade. In the sample, neither general IQ level (104.09 for the eight‐year‐olds and 99.62 for the nine‐year‐olds) nor language acquisition score (49.32 for the eight‐year‐olds and 49.19 for the nine‐year‐olds) differed significantly.