The Influence of Moral Schemas on the Reconstruction of Moral Narratives in Eighth Graders and College Students

Much attention has been focused on the importance of reading moral stories to children (e.g., W. Bennett, 1993). Although research on general discourse comprehension is flourishing, little attention has been given to how moral discourse is understood by individuals; that is, what affects an individual's comprehension of a moral text? Eighth-grade and college students read and recalled four complex moral narratives in which moral arguments at different Kohlbergian stages were embedded. Participants then took the Defining Issues Test (DIT), a measure of moral judgment development. Those with higher reasoning scores on the DIT reconstructed more high-stage moral arguments during recall, including adding high-stage moral reasoning that was not in the original text. Significant age-level differences in cumulative moral judgment concepts were also found. Prior moral knowledge affected the comprehension of complex moral narratives.