Understanding and recall of science news written in the inverted pyramid and narrative styles

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between two raphics. styles of science news writing and their effects on recall and comprehension. Students in three college journalism classes participated in the study. The 113 participants represented a variety of majors. Each student read one of three news articles-a control article or a version of a science news article written in either the inverted pyramid or narrative style. After reading the articles, students answered 20 multiple-choice questions measuring recall and comprehension. Two days later, students answered the same 20 questions. Information also was collected on prior knowledge of science, science background, major, classification, sex, and preferred news sources. Significant differences between the newswriting styles were found in comprehension and recall rates for six of the questions. The study suggests that the narrative style may be more effective at increasing recall while the inverted pyramid may be more effective at increasing comprehension. The narrative style appears to be more effective in communicating hard facts and details while the inverted pyramid is better at communicating abstract concepts and principles. Prior knowledge of science was found to predict success on the test taken immediately following the reading. The study also found that men significantly outperformed women on the pre-test measuring prior knowledge of science. This study suggests that some dynamic sets apart the narrative and inverted pyramid newswriting styles. This dynamic was only teased out at the level of the individual question. The research also lends support to the idea that men and women retain and understand information differently, especially information on science.