As with memory for other kinds of verbal material, memory for prose is a complex function of various factors. Some of the more important factors include:

1. the kind of reading or studying activity in which the learner engages while processing a text
2. the particular type of prose that is being remembered
3. the kinds of information and events that intervene between the initial reading of the text and when remembering is attempted and
4. the way in which memory is assessed (e.g., through recall, short-answer, multiple-choice, or true/false tests). 

Influences of Encoding and Reading Processes

One of the dominant themes in contemporary memory research is that memory benefits to the extent that the material is processed for meaning. In verbal communications, this holds true for prose. For example, research has shown that readers who have been instructed to count the number of four-letter words in a passage do not remember the passage as well as readers who have been instructed to rate the paragraphs for ambiguity (Schallert, 1976). Similar experiment is aslo done in psychology class in which that group that was asked to count the syllables listed less terms than the group that interpret the prose into imaginations. Likewise , if a text is written so that its topic is obfuscated, the degree to which meaningful processing or deep processing can take place decreases, and this text is recalled less well than a text in which the topic is clearly stated (Bransford and Johnson 1972). Thus, a prerequisite for remembering prose is extracting the meaning that is being conveyed.

Prose retention is characterized by memory for the ideas that are captured by the particular words used. The main or most important ideas are recalled best, followed by ideas of intermediate importance, with unimportant details usually recalled worst. The reader's point of view or frame of reference determines the importance of the ideas. Different points of view adopted by different readers can result in the same ideas being assigned different levels of importance. Because an idea's level of importance determines its memorability, very different patterns of memory for the same text can be observed across readers. For example, a prose passage about a household and its daily activities will be remembered differently by a reader who adopts the perspective of a burglar appraising particular properties for a clandestine visit (Fass and Schumacher, 1981).

Perspective is just one dimension of how the reader orients to text that can influence memory for text. In some cases, readers use selected study processes such as outlining or underlining to focus their attention on certain aspects of the information in the text. For simple materials like word lists, it has been shown that attending well to each word and to the possible organizational links among the words produce the best recall. Prose recall depends on the same kinds of attending. Specifically reading or study strategies that ensure both attention to the individual ideas and to how these ideas are organized or related produce better recall for the text as a whole than reading or study strategies that focus only on one or the other (McDaniel and Kerwin, 1987).
 
 

Prose Organization and Prose Type

Generally, narrative prose such as a story is better remembered than expository prose such as an essay or an article. The superior memorability of narratives relative to expositions is due in large part to readers' better ability to organize and interrelate the ideas expressed in a narrative. Readers activate relevant "packets" or structures of world knowledge when attempting to understand a text. These are called schemata. They are believed to influence the degree to which incoming text information is organized. Text content for which readers have a schema is better organized and elaborated, and thus better remembered. For instance, researchers have shown that narrative about a fictitous baseball game is better recalled by readers knowledgeable about baseball i.e readers who have baseball schema than non-knowledgeable readers (Spilich et al. 1979)

Prose can also be organized by linking the elements in terms of causal relations. These capture relations between events described in the text that involve motivation, psychological causation (e.g., greed causes certain behaviors), and physical causation (e.g, rain causes things to become slippery). People tend to remember those parts of a narrative which fit into the causal chain and forget the parts which are not incorporated into it (Fletcher and Bloom, 1988).

Another factor that contributes to prose organization is the reader's knowledge about the structure of conventional text forms. Certain components are expected in the structure such as a setting, an initiating even posing a problem, an attempt at its solution by the protagonist, and a consequence. This knowledge, derived from oral traditions, allows the reader to beeter organize the information presented.

The difficulty in remembering expository prose lies in its inconsistent strusture, thus reducing the extent to which the reader has a prestored structure that facilitates organization. Research indicates, however, that if readers are explicitly trained to notice and utilize some conventional expository forms such as argumentative structures, then memory for such material is improved. Furthermore, this positive effect is obtained for older as well as younger adults(Meyer, Young, and Bartlett, 1990).

Remembering Prose over Time

The organizational processes described above seem to exert greater influence as the interval between reading and attempted remembering increases. If recall is attempted within minutes after reading, the information that does not fit an initial perspective or schema can be recovered, If recall is delayed for at least 1 day, however, then recall of information that does not fit the schema drop substantially, whereas information that fits the schemawill still be well recalled (Fass and Schumacher, 1981). Similarly, in some cases study strategies designed to increase organizational processing of a text such as outlining will not improve memory for a text (relative to reading alone with no studying) when recall is tested immediately, but will increase recall when testing is delayed for several days (Einstein et al.1990). This increasingly beneficial mnemonic effect of organization with longer retention intervals is another aspect of prose memory that parallels memory for simpler verbal material.

Another factor that affects memory for prose is information that the learner encounters between reading a text and trying to remember it. Such intervening information can have facilitative as well as interfering effects on retention. To illustrate both kinds of effects, consider a biography about a poet named Susan. In the biography it is stated that Susan's father was a servant who died of diphtheria when Susan was 5 years old. After reading this biography, another biography is encountered in which Ann's blacksmith father dies of lung cancer when Ann is 2 years old. Research has shown that readers who are given the two biographies and are then asked to recall the first biography, recall the theme of the first biography (e.g., "the main character's father died when she was young") better than readers who are not given the second biography. But readers given the second biography do not recall the specific details of the first biography(the father's occupation, what he died of, and when) as well as the readers not given the second biography(Bower, 1974).

One of the more interesting features of prose recall is that intervening information, or even a long retention interval, can promote reconstruction in remembering. Reconstruction refers to the finding that memory of a text can be distorted by the inclusion of information consistent with the theme of the text but not actually mentioned in it. Reconstruction also includes alteration of information that was in the text to bring it more in line with information encountered subsequent to the text or with reader's schemata that were activated in comprehending the text. In the Spiro study (Spiro, 1980) participants read a narrative about two college students who started dating seriously but disagreed about their desires to have children. After the participants read the text, the experimenter casually mentioned that the students had ended up getting married. Several weeks later, the participants attempted to recall the narrative. Their recall included reconstructions and distortions consistent with the new information mentioned by the experimenter but not actually in the narrative.

Prose recall need not always be reconstructive. If the reader expects a memory test on what has been read, then recall is more reproductive. The recalled is more accurate, and there is little inclusion of extra information not actually in the text. Also, in situations in which the reader's initial interpretative schema is invalidated at the time of recall, recall becomes more reproductive(Hasher and Griffin, 1978).

Summary

The influence of many factors change how prose can be retained in the memory. The remembering of the prose is up to the prose organization and how it can relate to the reader. Further, the length of time the prose is retained can be measured with recognition tests. This can lead to research on how textbooks can be better written to help students learn the material and retain it for a longer period of time.