CHILDRENS SENSITIVITY TO TOPICAL DISCONTINUITY IN JUDGING STORY ADEQUACY

Three experiments were conducted to determine if children are sensitive to topical discontinuity in judging story adequacy. Second- and fifth-grade children and college students listened to stories containing an action sequence involving a premise, a set of filler actions, and an outcome. Topical discontinuity was manipulated by including fillers that were continuous with the outcome, that described a set of actions discontinuous with the outcome, or that described both discontinuous actions and a discontinuous character. In addition, titles and instructions were varied. Even the second graders showed competence in judging the discontinuous stories, and sensitivity varied with both titles and instructions.