The effect of message structure on inference making in recall.

Abstract

This study attempted to determine the effect of manipulating the structure of a story on the production of inferences in recall. One independent variable, story structure, was manipulated four times. Each manipulation was administered to one of four groups composed of Communication 1113 students. After the presentation of the stimulus material, a question packet was administered to each student. The questionnaire tapped the three dependent variables: recall of cause, recall of consequence, and recall of congruency. In addition, the instrument also tapped the subjects' confidence in the accuracy of their answers. Analysis of the results revealed that when a story node is deleted or made incongruent, the subjects will produce inferences in recalling the manipulated node. The results also revealed that the manipulation of the cause node has a greater effect on recall than the manipulation of the consequence node. Testing of the confidence scores revealed that subjects were not aware of making congruency inferences but were aware of making consequence inferences.