What makes a narrative memorable?

Abstract

ABSTRACT The 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.