The semantic effects of consulting a textual database on rewriting

Children 8-10-years old were asked to write a story and then to improve it using resource texts. A first group accessed the resource texts through a computer database, a second group read the texts on paper and no texts were given to a third group. Regardless of their reading abilities, the children using computers produced more propositions during rewriting and, in particular, more macrostructural propositions. Inventions inspired by the resource texts outnumbered borrowings, particularly in the computer-assisted group. Our interpretation stresses the effect of the database learning environment on the reprocessing of mental models involved in generating first drafts.