title: The production effect in long-list recall: In no particular order?
abstract: The production effect reflects a memory advantage for words read aloud versus silently. We investigated how production influences free recall of a single long list of words. In each of 4 experiments, a production effect occurred in a mixed-list group but not across pure-list groups. When compared to the pure-list groups, the mixed-list effects typically reflected a cost to silent words rather than a benefit to aloud words. This cost persisted when participants had to perform a generation or imagery task for the silent items, ruling out a lazy reading explanation. This recall pattern challenges both distinctiveness and strength accounts, but is consistent with an item-order account. By this account, the aloud words in a mixed list disrupt the encoding of item-order information for the silent words, thus impairing silent word recall. However, item-order measures and a forced-choice order test did not provide much evidence that recall was guided by retrieval of item-order information. We discuss our pattern of results in light of another recent study of the effects of production on long-list recall. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Calgary.
authors.forename: Angela M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Calgary.
authors.forename: Glen E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Bodner
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Western University.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taikh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult