Young Children's Memory for Televised Stories: Effects of Importance

Abstract

LORCH, ELIZABETH PUGZLES; BELLACK, DANIEL R.; and AUGSBACH, LYNN HALLER. Young Children's Memory for Televised Stories: Effects of Importance. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 453463. Young children's memory for plot-relevant information in televised stories has been reported to be poor, with little differentiation of important from unimportant information. Most investigators, however, have done little to ensure comparability of information varying in importance. In 2 experiments we examined effects of importance on 4-6-year-old children's memory for 4 Sesame Street stories. Stories were analyzed into base idea units. Free recall and cued recall of units rated high, medium, and low in importance by college students were assessed. In addition, to check whether effects of importance were related to retrieval demands, performance was evaluated on recognition items that followed failed cued recall questions. Finally, a total memory score that combined information from all measures was used as an optimal performance indicator. Major findings were: (1) in both experiments, scores increased linearly with importance; (2) 6-year-olds' cued recall increased more sharply with importance than 4-year-olds'; (3) effects of importance were not attributable to associated factors (e.g., presentation mode, formal features). Results are consistent with theories proposing that young children are active, schema-guided viewers.