The development of goal plans of action in the narration of a picture story

The construction of coherent narrations of events in a picture storybook by children was studied. A causal network discourse analysis (Trabasso, van den Broek, & Suh, 1989) was applied to the narrations by children, 3, 4, 5, and 9 years in age, and adults, 20 years and older. The analysis was successfully applied at the clausal level by deriving interacting causal network representations for the perspective of each character in each of the narrations. The structure and content of the network representation of the main character were analyzed in detail. The analysis indicated that 9‐year‐olds and adults narrate according to a hierarchical goal plan of action. It also showed striking developmental differences from age 3 to 5. The 3‐year‐old children described states and neutral outcomes that are unrelated to the central theme. The 4‐year‐olds, in contrast, encoded actions relevant to the central theme but omitted goals and purposes. The 5‐year‐olds added these purposes to attempts. Coherence in the narration is achieved by applying naive theories of psychological and physical causation, reflecting knowledge about goal plans of action. The narration's content and structure are organized according to a hierarchical set of goals and a sustained plan of action. Unexpected obstacles and failures of goal attainment lead to the reinstatement of goals in order to continue following the plan. Although comprehension of this structure is attained by age 4, coherence begins to manifest itself most explicitly in the narrations of the 5‐year‐olds.