Enhancing Memory Through Literary Features

Literary devices used by a writer can influence and impact the manner in which readers respond and interact with a text. Both the perspectives readers are expected to take while reading and the amount of foregrounding in a text cognitively and affectively influence a reader’s experience. However, little research has explored what effects these factors have on verbatim memory. For this research, participants were instructed to read a short literary story either by identifying with the protagonist or as a spectator. After reading and completing a range of other tasks, participants were asked to select sentences they saw in the story verbatim. This research found there was a significant increase in memory for literary sentences compared to non-literary sentences, but no significant difference in memory between the two perspective conditions.