Lab member Stefanie Marie Mutialu will present her research at the Office of Educational Opportunity and
Enrichment Services (OEOES) Summer Research Fellowship Symposium at UC Davis. This research is a collaborative project between the Cognitive Communication Science Lab and the researchers at The Ohio State University and University of Illinois Urbana Champagne.

Presentation Title: What Do People Remember From Narratives and Why Do We Remember It?
Date: September 4, 2022
Time: 3:20 – 3:40pm
Location: 114 South Hall, UC Davis
Abstract: The purpose of this presentation is to examine narrative persuasion in health message contexts. Many studies have found narratives to be more persuasive than non-narrative messages. However, people’s memory of information in these messages is not well understood. To address this gap, a recent study examined narrative persuasion and processing fluency by comparing narrative to non-narrative messages. Unexpectedly, the results showed participants had an increase in message recognition from non-narrative messages. Moreover, people had better message recognition when processing fluency was at a moderate level. We are currently conducting a follow-up study to verify this result. The importance of developing an understanding of the specific types of messages that strengthen persuasion can offer a different perception of how to deliver health and prosocial-related messages, ultimately making them more effective.