Abstract
The effects of reader perspective and cognitive style on encoding, storage, and retrieval processes were investigated in two experiments. In both experiments, subjects read a story from one of two different perspectives or from no directed perspective, recalled the story from either the originally assigned perspective or the alternative perspective, and then took a recognition test on the story. In addition, subjects in both experiments were given an embedded figures test. In Experiment 1, subjects took the recall and recognition test immediately after reading the story and in Experiment 2, the recall and recognition tests were given four days later.
In Experiment 1, subjects who read the story from either of the assigned perspectives (burglar or home buyer) correctly recognized more items that were important to the burglar perspective, but subjects who were not assigned a perspective showed no difference in recognition of burglar and home buyer information. It was suggested that perhaps assigning subjects a perspective induces them to think more about the passage and relate it to their world knowledge. The results of the immediate recall test suggest that readers use their knowledge associated with the assigned perspective as a retrieval plan. Individual differences in cognitive style had no effect on subjects' recall or recognition performance in Experiment 1.
In Experiment 2, subjects with either high or low scores on the embedded figures test who recalled the story from either of the assigned perspectives (burglar or home buyer) recalled more burglar than home buyer information. Subjects with intermediate scores, however, showed no difference in recall of burglar and home buyer information. These results, together with those of Experiment 1, were interpreted as suggesting that structural characteristics of the text itself may affect storage and retrieval processes but not encoding processes. Reader perspective showed no effect on the delayed recognition test.