Reader's memory for information sources in simple news stories: Effects of text and task features

Abstract

Two experiments examined readers' memory for information sources in short news stories. Based on current theories of text comprehension, we assumed that sources involved in the situation described (e.g. a witness or a participant) would be better remembered than remote sources (e.g. someone commenting on the topic from a distance). We additionally tested the assumption that less plausible stories would enhance readers' memory for remote information sources. Experiment 1 found that readers remembered sources involved in the situation better than remote sources. Although sources of less plausible stories were not better remembered than sources of more plausible stories, implausible details were. In Experiment 2, source-focusing instructions increased readers' memory for sources but did not affect the overall pattern of effects. We discuss the findings with respect to theories of text comprehension and knowledge elaboration. We conclude that comprehension theories and task-oriented reading theories can be extended to account for the encoding of source as well as content information.

Keywords:

• Plausibility
• Reading goals
• Source distance
• Source memory
• Text comprehension

Jason L. G. Braasch, Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, 202 Psychology Building, Memphis, TN 38152, USA

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their extremely useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

We also thank Dominique Knutsen and Ludovic Le Bigot for their significant help in statistics.

Research presented in this paper was funded in part through a doctoral scholarship from the Region Poitou-Charentes (France) to the first author, and through the Grant [grant number ANR-12-CORD-0028] from the French Agence Nationale pour la Recherche to the last author.

Jason L. G. Braasch, Department of Psychology, University of Memphis, 202 Psychology Building, Memphis, TN 38152, USA

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their extremely useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

We also thank Dominique Knutsen and Ludovic Le Bigot for their significant help in statistics.

Research presented in this paper was funded in part through a doctoral scholarship from the Region Poitou-Charentes (France) to the first author, and through the Grant [grant number ANR-12-CORD-0028] from the French Agence Nationale pour la Recherche to the last author.