The generation effect: Software demonstrating the phenomenon

Abstract

The generation effect occurs when people demonstrate better memory for material that they have generated than for material that they have merely read. The software described here allows students to participate in replications of generation effect experiments. The program can be used with its default settings to present simple experiments. I have used this feature in research methods courses to provide data for writing research reports. The program can also be modified to allow students to design and conduct their own variations of generation effect experiments. Siamecka and Graf (1978) presented five experiments demonstrating that memory for self-generated material is better than memory for material that is merely read. They dubbed this phenomenon the generation effect. This effect has since received a lot of attention (Begg & Snider, 1987;Begg, Vinski, Frankovich, & Holgate, 1991;Burns, 1990Burns, , 1992Gardiner, Smith, Richardson, Burrows, & Williams, 1985; Glisky & Rabinowitz, 1985;Greenwald & Johnson, 1989;Hirshman & Bjork, 1988;Johns & Swanson, 1988;McDaniel, Waddill, & Einstein, 1988; McElroy & Siamecka, 1982;Nairne, Pusen, & Widner, 1985;Payne, Neely, & Burns, 1986;Schmidt & Cherry, 1989; Siamecka & Fevreiski, 1983;Slamecka & Katsaiti, 1987;Watkins & Sechler, 1988). This report describes software that allows students to participate in generation effect experiments.Siamecka and Graf (1978) presented lists of word pairs to their participants. Each pair was produced using some rule (e.g., a rhyming pair would be rave-cave). For the read condition, participants read this list of word pairs. They were also told the rule that related the words in each pair. For the generate condition, participants were told the rule, and then they saw the stimulus word and the first letter of the response (rave-c). The participant's task was to complete the response. After the list was presented, participants were given a memory test. Siamecka and Graf (1978) found the generation effect to be a robust phenomenon. They found significant effects with recognition, free recall, and cued recall memory tests. They found the effect when the read and generate tasks were presented within participants and when the tasks were presented between participants. They found the effect for intentional and incidental memory conditions. The only limitations were on the effect reported by I thank Steve Schmidt for a careful reading ofthe manuscript and for testing the software. Address correspondence to W. Langston, Department of Psychology,