What makes a narrative memorable?

1990 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyssa Mccabe ◽  
Carole Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Free Recall ◽  
Analysis Of Variance ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Dominant Contribution ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Structural Category ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Main Effects

ABSTRACTThe relatively unexamined question of what kinds of narratives are memorable as whole units of discourse was addressed by studying memory for 288 children's personal narratives. Each narrative was assigned a structural category in story grammar analysis and Labov's highpoint analysis. Narratives were also rated for the presence or absence of sensational content. An incidental free recall of these narratives was then requested from 116 subjects. As predicted, an analysis of variance of recall frequencies revealed a main effect of sensational content; sensational narratives were recalled more frequently than nonsensational ones. Although there was no main effect of highpoint structure, that variable did interact with sensational content; in the absence of sensational content, highpoint structural sophistication predicted enhanced recall. Contrary to prediction, there were no main effects of highpoint structure or story grammar. The study is interpreted as providing partial validation of highpoint analysis, as well as revealing the independent, dominant contribution of content to memory for others' narratives as whole units.

scholarly journals Story Grammar Analysis of Pre-schoolers' Narratives: An Investigation into the Influence of Task Parameters

1999 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Kerstin M. Tönsing ◽  
Herman Tesner
Keyword(s):  
School Children ◽  
Clinical Assessment ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Narrative Skills ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Task Parameters

This study aimed at examining the influences of the parameters of the narrative task (administered to the pre-schooler) on narrative structure. Seventeen pre-school children were selected as subjects. Five narrative tasks were administered to each subject. The narratives were analysed for length and structure. Mainly two factors were found to influence the length and structure of the produced narratives; firstly, the presence or absence of a 'model' on which the child could base his/her narrative, and, secondly, the structure inherent in this 'model'. The implications of the study for clinical assessment of narrative skills as well as for further research are considered.

Narrative Discourse of African American Children

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tempii Champion ◽  
Harry Seymour ◽  
Stephen Camarata
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Language Pathology ◽  
Language Evaluations ◽  
American Children ◽  
Grammar Analysis ◽  
Communicative Context

Abstract Oral narratives are increasingly used in speech and language evaluations for measuring language skills, and to measure children's organizational skill within a broader communicative context. Because of this, oral-narrative analyses are applied to diverse age ranges and populations. However, there are few studies examining the production of narratives of child speakers of African American English (AAE), and these previous studies offer conflicting views on the nature of narratives in this population. Because of this, the purpose of this study was to investigate the production of narratives of AAE speaking children using elicitation procedures that were standard across participants. Fifteen partici-pants were selected from a predominantly African American low-income com-munity of Springfield, Massachusetts. Highpoint and story-grammar analyses-two analyses that are often applied narratives in previous studies- were applied to the samples gathered from these participants. The results indicated that (a) subjects produced a greater number of more advanced (com-plete and complex) structures than lower level structures within story grammar analysis at all age levels, and (b) the most advanced structure (classic structure) was observed more often than any other structures within highpoint analysis. (Speech/Hearing/Language Pathology)

scholarly journals Structural organization of dream experience during daytime sleep-onset rapid eye movement period sleep of patients with narcolepsy type 1

SLEEP ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Cipolli ◽  
Fabio Pizza ◽  
Claudia Bellucci ◽  
Michela Mazzetti ◽  
Giovanni Tuozzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Structural Organization ◽  
Sleep Onset ◽  
Nrem Sleep ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Late Night ◽  
Grammar Analysis

Abstract Study Objective To assess the frequency of dream experience (DE) developed during naps at Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) by patients with narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) and establish, using story-grammar analysis, the structural organization of DEs developed during naps with sleep onset rapid eye movement (REM) period (SOREMP) sleep compared with their DEs during early- and late-night REM sleep. Methods Thirty drug-free cognitively intact adult NT1 patients were asked to report DE developed during each MSLT nap. Ten NT1 patients also spent voluntarily a supplementary night being awakened during the first-cycle and third-cycle REM sleep. Patients provided dream reports, white dreams, and no dreams, whose frequencies were matched in naps with SOREMP versus non-REM (NREM) sleep. All dream reports were then analyzed using story-grammar rules. Results DE was recalled in detail (dream report) by NT1 patients after 75% of naps with SOREMP sleep and after 25% of naps with NREM sleep. Dream reports were provided by 8 out of 10 NT1 patients after both awakenings from nighttime REM sleep. Story-grammar analysis of dream reports showed that SOREMP-DEs are organized as hierarchically ordered sequences of events (so-called dream-stories), which are longer and more complex in the first and fourth SOREMP naps and are comparable with nighttime REM-DEs. Conclusions The similar structural organization of SOREMP-DEs with nighttime REM-DEs indicates that their underlying cognitive processes are highly, albeit not uniformly, effective during daytime SOREMP sleep. Given the peculiar neurophysiology of SOREMP sleep, investigating SOREMP-DEs may cast further light on the relationships between the neurophysiological and psychological processes involved in REM-dreaming.

scholarly journals The Effect of Narrative Language Intervention on the Language Skills of Children With Hearing Loss

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Stephanie M. Raymond ◽  
Trina D. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Language Intervention ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Baseline Design ◽  
Narrative Intervention ◽  
Children With Hearing Loss ◽  
Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss ◽  
Narrative Language

Purpose Narrative intervention has not been extensively investigated with children with hearing loss, but it has been shown to improve a broad range of language skills of children with a variety of disabilities and language needs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of narrative language intervention on the narrative retelling skills and vocabulary use of children with hearing loss. Method A multiple baseline design (for retelling) and a repeated acquisition design (for vocabulary) were used to fulfill the purpose of the study. Participants included two children ages 5 and 9 years diagnosed with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, fitted to an amplification device. Each child received one 70-min session of individual narrative language intervention per week for at least 6 weeks that focused on teaching less common vocabulary words in addition to story grammar and complex sentences. Results Both participants demonstrated weekly increases in narrative retell scores and repeated pretest to posttest gains in the use of targeted vocabulary. Evidenced through visual analysis, both participants showed some growth in retell once intervention was introduced, with at least a modest upward trend each week. Moreover, vocabulary use scores, collected directly after intervention, showed both participants improved vocabulary use in familiar and untrained contexts. Conclusions Results suggest narrative language intervention improved the narrative retell ability and vocabulary use of children with hearing loss. Narrative intervention is a promising approach for promoting the language skills of children with hearing loss, but this finding requires replication.

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