In Cinderella's slippers? Story comprehension from the protagonist's point of view.

Abstract

Research on text comprehension shows that readers construct a model of the situation described in a narrative. A major factor in constructing a situational model is the perspective from which the action of the narrative is imagined. J. B. Black, T. J. Turner, and G. H. Bower (1979) found that adults recall a deictic verb of motion more accurately if it is spatially consistent with the point of view of the main protagonist. Recall is more accurate for the verbs come and bring if they describe a movement toward the protagonist; recall is more accurate for go and take if they describe a movement away from the protagonist. Thus, adults interpret movements in a narrative from the perspective of the protagonist. This study indicates that 3- and 4-year-old children show the same pattern of recall. They accurately recall verbs of motion that are consistent with the protagonist's perspective but make substitution errors on verbs inconsistent with that perspective.