Young Children's Exposure to Rhyming and Nonrhyming Stories: A Structural Analysis of Recall

The influence of rhyme on preschoolers' story recall was examined in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, preschoolers listened to either a rhyming or a prose version of a story, and then their recall was tested. Overall retention of content was higher in the prose condition than in the rhyme condition. A story-grammar analysis revealed that this difference occurred because the children who heard the rhyming version of the story recalled less information from the setting and outcome nodes. In Experiment 2, preschoolers listened to a different story in a rhyming, rhythmical, or prose version. Once again, the children who heard the prose version showed the highest recall, and rhyme reduced retention of setting, attempt, and outcome information. Thus, for both studies, the finding that the children did not retain outcome information in the rhyming condition demonstrates rhyme's negative influence on young children's retention of story content.