Intrusion of a thematic idea in retention of prose.

Two implications of Bartlett's theory of memory were tested: (a) that prose passages are stored in schematic form, and (ft) that thematic assimilation increases with the passage of time. The 5s read brief biographical passages about either a famous or a fictitious person (e.g., Adolph Hitler vs. Gerald Martin). Recognition memory for individual sentences was tested after intervals of either 5 rnin. or 1 wk. As expected, passages with a famous main character yielded more false positive errors. In addition, the errors in this condition depended on the thematic relatedness of the recognition foil. The further prediction on thematic assimilation was also upheld: Thematic effects were relatively greater at the longer retention interval.