nal stories that were initially com

nal stories that were initially composed and orally transmitted in order to teach a life lesson and to guide people in how to live a morally upstanding life. A structural understanding of the plot must be accompanied by an ability to infer the moral that the author is attempting to convey (either implicitly embedded within the text, and/or explicitly stated at the end). When the moral is not explicitly stated, the reader must consider the outcome of the fable in relation to the intended actions of the characters, and in relation to their understanding of fair and equitable consequences. As in the research on story understanding and retelling, there are developmental differences in understanding fables. Children in senior grade comprehend fables better than their younger peers, but not as well as college students. One research showed that adults find stories that have moral outcomes more meaningful and comprehensible than similar stories that do not have a moral outcome.