In two separate experiments, children (2nd and 7th graders) and adults generated oral descriptions of the picture stories in the WISC-R picture arrangement task. Comprehension of the stories was assessed by subjects' use of logical connectives and by mention of subtle themes in interpreting the more difficult stories. In both experiments and on both measures, adults exhibited better comprehension than second graders. However, only in experiment 1, where a non-canonical example story preceded the task, did adults also outperform the seventh graders. In experiment 2, the example was a canonical story and seventh graders performed as well as adults. (Author)