Recall and language usage in retellings of televised and printed stories

Abstract

Directly after story presentation and two to three weeks later, children from grades 4 ( N=44) and 6( N=44) retold two stories that were either read by children or presented to them as a television film. Retelling were analyzed for correctness and completeness of story recall, and specify of language usage. As predicted, recall of the film and the printed story varied with children's age and complete than their recall of the printed story, whereas sixth-graders' recall was almost independent of the medium used. After two to three weeks, recall of the printed stories had deteriorated considerably more than recall of televised stories. Reading a story resulted in more additional descriptions of story elements than watching a TV film, although after two to three weeks this effect had disappeared. Children who watched a film referred more specifically to story characters than those who read a print version of the story, a finding that is probably attributable to the nature of the print version used.