Expository Paragraph Properties That Influence Literal Recall

Abstract

Carroll and Freedle (1972) have speculated that the structure of prose paragraphs may constitute a form of plan that influences the manner in which information is processed and/or recalled by the reader. This study investigated the influence of prose structure on sixth grade readers' literal recall scores. Internal and external structural properties of meaningful and less meaningful paragraphs were manipulated. Internal as well as external structural properties had a significant joint influence with paragraph meaningfulness on literal recall. Students reading paragraphs with compact subtopic structure obtained significantly higher recall scores than those reading paragraphs employing a discontinous subtopic structure. At each level of paragraph meaningfulness, the presentation of a main idea statement appeared to have a significant influence on recall.