Recalling script-based text: The role of selective processing and schematic cues

Abstract

Research on the learning of prose material based on scripts has attempted to relate the remembering of script events to how typical the events are of the generic scripts. The novel object effect reported by Bellezza and Bower (1982) shows that a typical script event containing an unexpected object is rated less typical but is recalled better than an event irrelevant to the script. The novel-object effect implies that the relation between script-typicality ratings and remembering may not be a simple one. One explanation of the novel-object effect is that script sentences containing a novel object are processed longer during learning. The second explanation, the inference-contradiction explanation, suggests that the presented word representing a novel object both contradicts and yet becomes associated to information strongly inferred from the script. The results of the experiment reported here support the in ferencecontradiction explanation.