Structure, content, and language usage: how do exceptional and average storywriters differ?

Abstract

Narrative understanding has been identified as a primary mode of human thought that informs us about the nature, causes and consequences of human actions and interactions and, as such, underlies social knowledge. The development of narrative thought was compared across talented and average functioning writers by analyzing the structural and linguistic complexity displayed in the story compositions and story interpretations of 151 boys and girls, aged 10‐ to 18‐years‐old. Ability, age and gender differences were observed. Consistent with the neo‐Piagetian literature, ability differences were largely linguistic, rather than structural or content‐focused.