Listening and Reading, Speaking and Writing: An Experimental Investigation of Differential Acquisition and Reproduction of Memory

Under controlled conditions, Ss differed significantly in their reproductions of The War of the Ghosts, depending upon their mode of acquisition (listening and reading) and their mode of reproduction (speaking or writing). Listeners produced a larger corpus, more ideas, fewer omissions of important units, more distortions, and a stylistically superior reproduction than readers. Reproduction by speaking produced a larger corpus, less diversity of expression, more additions, more subordinate ideas, and more signals than did reproduction by writing. Listening seems (logically and empirically) more closely allied to speaking and reading seems more closely allied to writing.