Differential forgetting of superordinate and subordinate information acquired from prose material.

Investigated the construct validity of a recognition test based on the structure of a prose passage and attempted to relate both present and past data on memory for prose to current approaches to human memory. 44 undergraduates read a 1,600-word prose passage after which half of them took a recognition test dealing with the content of the passage, while the other half performed an unrelated task. Following a 2-day delay, both groups took the recognition test. Results indicate that there were different rates of forgetting for superordinate and subordinate ideas in the passage. Further analysis addressed the adequacy of D. P. Ausubel's (1963) subsumption theory and F. I. Craik and R. S. Lockhart's (see record 1973-20189-001) levels-of-processing framework for explaining the data on memory for prose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)