Understanding Stories Through Morals and Remindings

Th i s paper examines the r o l e of both ep isod ic memory and a b s t r a c t p lann ing knowledge in n a r r a t i v e comprehension. Many n a r r a t i v e s a re memorable f o r the a b s t r a c t p lann ing adv ice they c o n t a i n , u s u a l l y i n the form o f f a i l u r e s which n a r r a t i v e charac te rs exper ienced du r i ng e i t h e r p l a n n i n g , o r p l an execut i o n . The p lann ing adv i ce , o r mora l , conta ined w i t h i n such s t o r i e s i s o f t e n expressed i n terms o f say ings , o r c u l t u r a l adages, which then e f f e c t i v e l y c h a r a c t e r i z e these s t o r i e s . These same p lann ing f a i l u r e s a l so p rov ide index ing s t r u c t u r e s f o r both t he s torage and subsequent r e t r i e v a l f rom longte rm ep i sod i c memory of n a r r a t i v e episodes i n v o l v i n g s i m i l a r e r r o r s i n p l a n n i n g . Consequent ly, when people encounter s i m i l a r episodes (e i t he r i n r e a l l i f e s i t u a t i o n s , o r v i c a r i o u s l y i n n a r r a t i v e s ) they exper ience spontaneous remindings (Schank 1982) of r e l a t e d s t o r i e s which i l l u s t r a t e the same mora l . A theo ry f o r e x t r a c t i n g the moral o f a s t o r y , a long w i t h remindings o f r e l a t e d episodes, i s c u r r e n t l y beg in designed and developed in order to extend the t h e o r e t i c a l and p r a c t i c a l scope of the BORIS (Dyer 1983) s t o r y understanding program.