Remembered study mode: Support for the distinctiveness account of the production effect

The production effect is the finding that words spoken aloud at study are subsequently remembered better than are words read silently at study. According to the distinctiveness account, aloud words are remembered better because the act of speaking those words aloud is encoded and later recovery of this information can be used to infer that those words were studied. An alternative account (the strength-based account) is that memory strength is simply greater for words read aloud. To discriminate these two accounts, we investigated study mode judgements (i.e., “aloud”/”silent”/”new” ratings): The strength-based account predicts that “aloud” responses should positively correlate with memory strength, whereas the distinctiveness account predicts that accuracy of study mode judgements will be independent of memory strength. Across three experiments, where the strength of some silent words was increased by repetition, study mode was discriminable regardless of strength—even when the strength of aloud and repeated silent items was equivalent. Consistent with the distinctiveness account, we conclude that memory for “aloudness” is independent of memory strength and a likely candidate to explain the production effect.     

Widening the boundaries of the production effect

Words that are read aloud are more memorable than words that are read silently. The boundaries of this production effect (MacLeod, Gopie, Hourihan, Neary, & Ozubko, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 671-685, 2010) have been found to extend beyond speech. MacLeod and colleagues demonstrated that mouthing also facilitates memory, leading them to speculate that any distinct, item-specific response should result in a production effect. In Experiment 1, we found support for this conjecture: Relative to silent reading, three unique productions-spelling, writing, and typing-all boosted explicit memory. In Experiment 2, we tested the sensitivity of the production effect. Although mouthing, writing, and whispering all improved explicit memory when compared to silent reading, these other production modalities were not as beneficial as speech. We argue that the enhanced distinctiveness of speech relative to other productions-and of other productions relative to silent reading-underlies this pattern of results.     

Item-specific processing reduces false memories

We examined the effect of item-specific and relational encoding instructions on false recognition in two experiments in which the DRM paradigm was used (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Type of encoding (item-specific or relational) was manipulated between subjects in Experiment 1 and within subjects in Experiment 2. Decision-based explanations (e.g., the distinctiveness heuristic) predict reductions in false recognition in between-subjects designs, but not in within-subjects designs, because they are conceptualized as global shifts in decision criteria. Memory-based explanations predict reductions in false recognition in both designs, resulting from enhanced recollection of item-specific details. False recognition was reduced following item-specific encoding instructions in both experiments, favoring a memory-based explanation. These results suggest that providing unique cues for the retrieval of individual studied items results in enhanced discrimination between those studied items and critical lures. Conversely, enhancing the similarity of studied items results in poor discrimination among items within a particular list theme. These results are discussed in terms of the item-specific/ relational framework (Hunt & McDaniel, 1993).     

Predicting memory benefits in the production effect: the use and misuse of self-generated distinctive cues when making judgments of learning

The production effect occurs when reading a word aloud leads to better memory for the item, relative to words that are read silently. In the present study, we assessed the degree to which judgments of learning (JOLs) are sensitive to the production effect, to determine whether people are aware of how distinctive cues can enhance memory. If the act of saying a word aloud is used as a cue for later memorability, then JOLs should be sensitive to production. Experiment 1 demonstrated that this was the case, as participants provided higher JOLs for produced items than for those read silently. This pattern of JOLs was also evident when participants silently mouthed words (Exp. 2). In Experiment 3, participants instead made a nonunique response as the production component (saying “yes” instead of the word itself). JOLs were still higher under production, although memory performance did not differ from that in a silent condition. The results suggest that the presence of both specific and nonspecific self-generated cues is used to make metacognitive judgments, likely due to the high accessibility of this information, but that participants are not precisely aware of how distinctiveness enhances encoding and retrieval. Such findings have implications for how distinctiveness is perceived by learners and for what cues would appropriately be incorporated when predicting future memory performance.     

阅读方式和学习次数对中文词汇的产生效应影响的发展研究

产生效应指朗读单词的记忆成绩要好于默读单词的记忆成绩。采用“学习-再认”的实验范式,以小学三年级、小学五年级、初一、初二和大学生为被试,采用2（阅读方式：朗读,默读）×2（学习次数：1次,3次）×5（年级：三年级,五年级,初一,初二,大学）的混合设计,探讨中文词汇产生效应的发展特点。结果发现：（1）年级的主效应显著,大学生的记忆成绩显著高于三年级、五年级和初一学生的;五年级、初一和初二学生的记忆成绩显著高于三年级学生的;（2）阅读方式的主效应显著,朗读的记忆成绩显著高于默读的;（3）学习次数的主效应显著,3次的记忆成绩显著高于1次的;（4）阅读方式和年级的交互作用显著,在朗读的记忆成绩上,小学三年级的与大学生的差异显著,但小学五年级、初一、初二学生的和大学生的差异均不显著,说明朗读的记忆成绩在小学五年级趋于成熟;在默读的记忆成绩上,小学三年级、五年级、初一学生的均与大学生的差异显著,初二学生的与大学生的无显著差异,表明默读的记忆成绩在初二年级趋于成熟。初一学生的产生效应大小与大学生的无差异。研究结果支持产生效应的特异观。     

发音动作和声音在产生效应中的作用：基于fNIRS的研究

产生效应指朗读的记忆成绩好于默读的,然而目前还不清楚发音动作和声音在其中的作用。本研究采用fNIRS技术,考察大学生朗读、唇读、默读三种阅读方式时的记忆成绩和大脑激活模式。结果发现：（1）朗读和唇读的记忆成绩显著高于默读的;（2）朗读和唇读时在初级运动皮层、布洛卡区和威尔尼克区的激活程度均显著大于默读时的;（3）朗读时在威尔尼克区的激活程度显著大于唇读时的。这表明,发音动作相对声音在产生效应中的作用更大。     

Distinctive encoding reduces the Jacoby—Whitehouse illusion

We investigated the influence of distinctive encoding on the Jacoby and Whitehouse (1989) illusion. Subjects studied visually presented words that were associated with either an auditory presentation of the same word (nondistinctive encoding) or a picture of the object (distinctive encoding). In both conditions, words were visually presented on the recognition test, and half were preceded by brief repetition primes. Priming test items increased hits and false alarms in the auditory condition, demonstrating the Jacoby-Whitehouse illusion. This illusion was reduced in the picture condition. In order to test whether this distinctiveness effect was caused by a recollection-based response strategy (i.e., the distinctiveness heuristic), we minimized recollection-based responding by having subjects make speeded recognition decisions. Contrary to the distinctiveness heuristic hypothesis, speeded responding did not eliminate the distinctiveness effect on the Jacoby-Whitehouse illusion. Picture encoding may reduce this illusion via a shift in preretrieval orientation, as opposed to a postretrieval editing process.     

Revisiting distinctive processes in memory

In three experiments, we examined the relationship between orthographic and phonological distinctiveness and incidental recall. In each experiment, participants were given a surprise free recall test after they read words aloud as quickly and accurately as possible. The pattern of results replicated those reported in Cortese, Watson, Wang, and Fugett (2004) for intentional and explicit free recall and recognition memory tasks in which items were read silently. Specifically, we found that phonological-to-orthographic neighborhood size influenced recall performance, whereas orthographic-to-phonological consistency and phonological-to-orthographic consistency did not. Also, we failed to replicate the orthographic-tophonological consistency effect reported by Hirshman and Jackson (1997), and argue that their results were due to a confounding of consistency with phonological neighborhood size. Our results suggest that the processing of words sharing both orthography and phonology with a large number of words produces interference that reduces one’s ability to remember them.     

Category typicality effects in episodic memory: Testing models of distinctiveness

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee Category typicality effects were investigated within the context of three models of distinctiveness: a univariate model, a fixed-multifeature model, and a weighted-multifeature model. High-typical, medium-typical, and atypical targets were embedded in lists containing a background set of mediumto high-typicality items. Atypical items were more poorly recalled than were medium- and high-typical items independently of list structure. In recognition, subjects who studied high-typical items had difficulty discriminating between high-typical items that were and were not presented as part of the list. However, item typicality had little effect on the recognition performance of subjects who did not study high-typical items. These findings were consistent with the weighted-multifeature model of distinctiveness.     

Production benefits both recollection and familiarity

In three experiments, we investigated the roles of recollection and familiarity in the production effect—the finding that words read aloud are remembered better than words read silently. Experiment 1, using the remember/know procedure, and Experiment 2, using the receiver operating characteristic procedure, converged in demonstrating that production enhanced both recollection and familiarity. Experiment 3 supported the role of recollection by demonstrating that specific episodic information—that is, whether a word had been studied aloud or silently—was stronger for items studied aloud. These findings fit with an explanation of the production effect as hinging on two factors: greater recollection of distinctive information from the study episode, and more familiarity due to greater attention allocated to the material studied aloud.     

I said, you said: the production effect gets personal

Saying a word out loud makes it more memorable than simply reading it silently. This robust finding has been labeled the production effect and has been attributed to the enhanced distinctiveness of produced relative to unproduced items (MacLeod et al. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 671–685, 2010). Produced items have the additional information that they were spoken aloud encoded in their representations, and this information is useful during retrieval in certifying prior encoding. The present study explored whether production must be self-performed to be beneficial, or whether another person’s production also makes an item more memorable. In two experiments, the production effect was shown to be reliable when production was done by someone other than the rememberer (i.e., by the experimenter or by another participant), but substantially smaller than the benefit from self-performed production. Intriguingly, the effect was intermediate when production was done by both the rememberer and another person. Distinctiveness—and hence the production effect—is greatest to the extent that it is personal.     

Retrieval conditions and false recognition: testing the distinctiveness heuristic

High levels of false recognition are observed after people study lists of semantic associates that all converge on a nonpresented lure word. In previous experiments, we have found that orienting participants to encode distinctive information about study list items by presenting them as pictures as opposed to words produces marked reductions in false recognition. We have suggested that these reductions reflect the operation of a distinctiveness heuristic: Participants demand access to detailed pictorial information in order to support a positive recognition decision. The present experiments provide additional evidence on this point and allow us to distinguish between the distinctiveness heuristic account and an alternative account based on the impoverished encoding of relational information that occurs when one is studying pictures. In Experiment 1, even when only half of the items in a study list were presented as pictures, a general suppression of false recognition was observed that could be attributable to impoverished encoding of relational information. Experiment 2 provided a critical test of the distinctiveness heuristic account: We manipulated test instructions and found that differences in false recognition rates between picture and word encoding were attenuated in a retrieval condition that did not encourage reliance on a distinctiveness heuristic.     

Evidence for an abstract lexical representation of word structure

Subjects were required to judge whether a particular visually presented word was a homophone or not. When instructed not to read the word aloud, subjects had difficulty with words whose orthography suggested a morphological structure different from that suggested by their homophones, for example, FINED (homophonic with FIND). There were no major problems encountered when the two members of the homophonic pair had the same morphological structure, for example, KNEAD. When subjects were instructed to read the word aloud before making a decision, however, their performance on the morphologically different items improved markedly. This result suggests, first, that inflected words are represented in the lexicon as stem plus affix and, second, that silent reading involves a more abstract phonological representation than the actual phonetic representation produced by reading aloud.     

What causes the isolation effect?

Events that are incongruent with their prevailing context are usually very well remembered. This fact often is described as the distinctiveness effect in memory, an effect that has served as explanation not only of memory phenomena but also of various other phenomena, including social judgment. The core laboratory paradigm for studying distinctiveness in memory research has long been the isolation paradigm. This paradigm, sometimes attributed to H. von Restorff, yields better memory for an item categorically isolated from surrounding items than for the surrounding items and a proper control item. The authors offer an interpretation of the isolation effect based on the analysis of the processing of similarities and differences among the items. Two experiments provide evidence for this interpretation. The results are discussed in the context of current theories of distinctiveness effects in memory. An appeal is made for a different conceptualization of distinctiveness effects, one that treats distinctiveness as a discriminative process in memory that requires processing of both similarities and differences among items.     

Rehearsal strategies and the serial-position curve in immediate free recall of ordered items

Immediate free recall of random strings of 10 numbers was studied under four experimental conditions: as each number was presented, subjects either had to recall the previous number (Recall n-1), recall the number just presented (Recall n), read the number (Read aloud), or were silent (Free Recall). Overall recall was the same in all conditions. Recall and order of recall by serial-position changed systematically, with an increasing recency and decreasing primacy effect from Free Recall through Read Aloud and Recall n to Recall n-1. These changes in recall order and serial-position curves suggest that differential rehearsal of items is decreased by requiring retrieval during presentation.     

The Importance of Item Selection in "Knew-It-All-Along" Studies of General Knowledge

This study was designed to investigate the effects of item sampling on hindsight bias in experiments using general knowledge material. The results show that the use of random versus traditional experimenter-selected item samples can have different effects on hindsight bias. In a within-subjects study almost twice as many items in a random sample were connected with a reversed effect rather than with a traditional hindsight bias. The same items that resulted in overconfidence in foresight lead to a higher degree of hindsight bias than others. The results suggest that earlier findings of unusually large hindsight effects with general knowledge tasks may be explained by the selection of items used. No hindsight effect was found on confidence scores in a within-subjects design, but was obtained in a between-subjects design. Results suggest that the use of a within-subjects design itself can moderate hindsight bias by familiarizing subjects with the task. The study shows the importance of two conditions for decreasing the hindsight bias: (1) The use of randomly sampled items, and (2) The use of a within-subjects procedure. When these conditions were met, the "knew-it-all-along effect" was completely eliminated.     

Auditioning the distinctiveness account: Expanding the production effect to the auditory modality reveals the superiority of writing over vocalising

The production effect (PE) documents the advantage in memory performance for words that are read aloud during study, rather than words that are read silently. Until now, the PE was examined in the visual modality, as the participants read the study words. In the present study, we extended the PE phenomenon and used the auditory modality at study. This novel methodology provides a critical test of the distinctiveness account. Accordingly, the participants heard the study words and learned them by vocal production (saying aloud) or by writing, followed by a free recall test. The use of the auditory modality yielded a memory advantage for words that were written during study over words that were vocally produced. We explain this result in light of the encoding distinctiveness account, suggesting that the PE is determined by the number of different encoding processes involved in learning, emphasising the essential role of active production.     

Creating False Memories of Words with or without Recognition of List Items: Evidence for Nonconscious Processes

Subjects exposed to lists of semantically related words falsely remember nonstudied words that are associated with the list items (e.g., Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). To determine if subjects would demonstrate this false memory effect if they were unable to recognize the list items, we presented lists of semantically related words with or without a concurrent memory load at rates of 2 s, 250 ms, or 20 ms per word (Experiment 1, between-subjects design) and 2 s or 20 ms per word (Experiment 2, within-subjects design). We found that the subjects falsely recognized semantically related nonstudied words in all conditions, even when they were unable to discriminate studied words from unrelated nonstudied words. Recognition of list items was unnecessary for the occurrence of the false memory effect. This finding suggests that this memory illusion can be based on the nonconscious activation of semantic concepts during list presentation.     

Why distinctive information reduces false memories: evidence for both impoverished relational-encoding and distinctiveness heuristic accounts

Two accounts explain why studying pictures reduces false memories within the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (J. Deese, 1959; H. L. Roediger & K. B. McDermott, 1995). The impoverished relational-encoding account suggests that studying pictures interferes with the encoding of relational information, which is the primary basis for false memories in this paradigm. Alternatively, the distinctiveness heuristic assumes that critical lures are actively withheld by the use of a retrieval strategy. When participants were given inclusion recall instructions to report studied items as well as related items, they still reported critical lures less often after picture encoding than they did after word encoding. As the impoverished relational-encoding account suggests, critical lures appear less likely to come to mind after picture encoding than they do after word encoding. However, the results from a postrecall recognition test provide evidence in favor of the distinctiveness heuristic.     

Context, Cognition, and Common Method Variance: Psychometric and Verbal Protocol Evidence

Researchers continue to debate the importance of (item) context effects, which are often thought to produce inflated percept-percept correlations in organizational self-reports. Using Feldman and Lynch's (1988) theory of self-generated validity, we propose five conditions under which such context effects are most likely to occur and to have an impact on substantive conclusions. The proposed effects are tested with psychometric and verbal protocol data from 208 subjects responding to an organizational justice questionnaire, using a 3 (types of context) by 2 ("think aloud" versus "silent") experimental design. Psychometric results revealed context effects on scale means, reliabilities, and some of the relations between constructs. Respondents' concurrent verbal protocols from the "think aloud" condition provided evidence for the cognitive basis of these effects.