Two experiments investigated the role of abstraction of the cue expression, which may influence the reminding of the stories. Three kinds of abstraction were used for cue expression, 1) Lower level of abstraction: concrete description of the event according to the temporal sequence, 2) Higher level of abstraction: short description with a few abstract words (e.g., “It's Too Much Late”), 3) Moderate level of abstraction: short description of the event with the thematic relation like proverb (e.g., “Closing the Barn Door After the Horse Is Gone”). The results of the experiments indicated that the pattern of reminding is influenced by the levels of abstraction of the cue expression, and that the cue expression with moderate level of abstraction like proverb is the more effective than the others to remind the story with same thematic relation. Discussion focuses on the role of the description of the typical case to refer to the thematic relation.
