ABSTRACT

The present study experimentally investigates the way children store the representation of linguistic texts. The paper focuses on one of the most prominent models in current children’s false-memory reports research: the fuzzy-trace theory. According to fuzzy-trace theory children store separate representations of targets’ surface forms (verbatim memories) and of the semantic, relational, and elaborative properties in which targets participate (gist memories). Gist memories are better preserved over time, more widely accessible, more generalizable to different forms of reasoning, and easier to process during the course of generating solutions to problems. The results of our experiment showed that skilled comprehenders are more likely to elaborate constructive representations by integrating related statements into a unitary mental model compared to less skilled comprehenders. The fact that performance at these constructive representations is not improved by the performance on the memory tasks is confirming the fuzzy-trace theory. Thus, the independence of the linguistic form from the gist of the statements is actually the independence of recalling from reasoning.

KEYWORDS: fuzzy-trace theory, text comprehension, working memory.

PAGES:269-283