The Role of the Establishment of Causal Connections and Elaboration Question Answering Tasks in the Comprehension of Spontaneous Narrative Discourse by Argentine College Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the causal connectivity of the statements (low-medium-high), elaboration question condition (focused on the identification of main ideas -focused on the identification of speakers’ emotions) and the modality of presentation of discourse (oral-written) in the comprehension of spontaneous narrative discourse by Spanish-speaking students. With this aim, Argentine college students were asked to listen or read a radio interview, and to answer 4 elaboration questions. These questions were presented after statements that had high causal connectivity and promoted the generation of emotion inferences. Then, they were asked to perform a free-recall and a comprehender’s emotions elaboration task. Statements that had high causal connectivity were more often included in the free recall task than those that had low causal connectivity. And, students that elaborated on main ideas included a higher number of statements than those that elaborated on speakers’ emotions. In the comprehenders’ emotions elaboration task, students who elaborated on speakers’ emotions and read the material included a higher number of statements than those that listened to it. And, the effect of causal connectivity was greater when students read than when they listened to the material.