Quality of text recall as a function of children's classroom competence

Abstract

This study demonstrated that the manner in which children, as students, chose to devise their recall was a function of the type of response register they maintained with their teachers. Students (mean C.A. = 10.4 years) who used an Imitative Response Register recalled significantly more referential propositions than students using either a Contingent or Noncontingent Response Register. In this sense, students employing an Imitative Response Register were more likely to reproduce text than the other Register Groups. Students (mean C.A. = 10.3 years) who used a Noncontingent Response Register recalled significantly more pragmatic inference propositions, i.e., either elaboration or distortion inference propositions, than students using either Imitative or Contingent Response Registers. In this sense, students employing a Noncontingent Response Register were more likely to embellish text than the other two groups. Finally, students (mean C.A. = 10.6 years) who used a Contingent Response Register recalled significantly more text-structured propositions, i.e., propositional and enabling inference propositions, than students using either Imitative or Noncontingent Response Registers. In this sense, students employing a Contingent Response Register were more likely to reconstruct text than the other two groups. These findings are discussed in terms of a classroom competence model of student behaviors.