The Effects of Message Summaries on the Immediate Free Recall of Main Points.

This study was designed to test the effects of message summaries on the recall of main points of an informative message. Two different types of summary techniques, a mnemonic and a traditional type, were identified and compared with each other and with a third treatment involving no summaries. One hundred and eleven volunteer subjects were randomly assigned to the three treatments and were given the "Goyer Organization of Ideas Test," which was used as a covariate. Although previous studies showed no effect of summaries on recognition as measured by multiple-choice tests, it appears that summaries are a significant aid to recall of the main points of a message. Further, some summaries seem to be more effective than others, as shown by the significantly higher recall scores of subjects who heard the mnemonic summaries versus subjects who heard the traditional summaries. (Author/RB)