Attentional demands and recall for stories that differed in rated interest
were examined. Mon interesting stories required fewer attentional resources
for comprehension than did less interesting stories (Experiment 1). Overal
l recall did not differ across story interest, but story interest did inter
act with type of encoding in terms of recall levels (Experiment 2). Relatio
nal encoding improved recall for low-interest stories but not high-interest
stories; the reverse pattern was obtained with a manipulation encouraging
extensive processing of the individual propositions. We suggest that intere
sting stories free up resources for relatively optional organizational proc
essing of the text elements, thereby rendering additional relational proces
sing redundant (for recall). Less interesting stories require more resource
s to keep attention focused on encoding the individual propositions, thereb
y rendering additional proposition-specific processing redundant.