Abstract
The purpose of the present experiment is to examine the effects of external and internal verbalization on memory and comprehension of a story among pre-school children.
51 five-year-old children were divided into 3 homogeneous groups (17 Ss each) on the basis of the score of “sentences” in the WPPSI. A short story was presented to all Ss three times. The first and the last presentations were the same for all Ss. The second presentation was as follows. For the external speech condition, each sentence of the story was first presented singly, and the S had to repeat the sentence aloud. For the internal speech condition, each sentence was first presented singly, and S was instructed to repeat the sentence in his mind without speaking out. For the control condition, each sentence was merely presented with a pause of the same length as for the above two groups. Each S went through the whole process individually.
The following three hypotheses were tested: 1. External speech instruction facilitates the learning of the formal aspects of sentences. 2. Internal speech instruction facilitates the learning of the semantic aspects of sentences. 3. Verbalization, whether with external speech or with internal speech, enhances plot comprehension.
After the presentation, the S was given (1) a free recall test,(2) a short answer test, and (3) a prediction test (S had to surmise the development of the story).
The over-all results supported the above-men-tioned three hypotheses. 1. In the free recall test, the External Speech group recalled the formal aspects of the sentences significantly better than the other two groups, while the Internal Speech group recalled the semantic aspects significantly better than the other two groups. The protocols of the free recall test indicate that Ss of the Internal Speech group elaborated the meaning of the sentences, i e., they were more likely to co-ordinate the elements of information in the story by spontaneously supplementing some elements which were not included in the original version. 2. In the short answer test, both External Speech and Internal Speech groups scored significantly higher than the Control group, while there was on significant difference between the former two groups.
3. In the prediction test, a significantly greater number of Ss in both External Speech and Internal Speech groups correctly linked their conjecture to the plot of the story than in the Control group.
