A Causal Model of Sentence Recall: Effects of Familiarity, Concreteness, Comprehensibility, and Interestingness

Abstract

This study presents and tests a theoretically derived causal model of the recall of sentences. One group of undergraduate students rated 40 sentences about historical characters for content familiarity, concreteness, comprehensibility, and interestingness. A second group read the sentences and provided written recalls immediately after reading and again after five days. Using predictions derived from schema theory and from dual coding theory, a causal model was derived that identified familiarity and concreteness as causes of comprehensibility; familiarity, concreteness, and comprehensibility as causes of interestingness; and all the identified variables as causes of both immediate and delayed recall. Path analysis procedures indicated that concreteness strongly affected comprehensibility and recall, and that both concreteness and familiarity affected interestingness. The results suggest support for a dual coding theory account of sentence comprehension and recall.