Testing the Item-Order Account of Design Effects Using the Production Effect

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition memory, and cognition, 2014-03, Vol.40 (2), p.441-448
• Main Authors: Jonker, Tanya R, Levene, Merrick, MacLeod, Colin M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Articulation (Speech); Biological and medical sciences; Cognition; Cognitive Processes; College Students; Effects; Experimental psychology; Experiments; Female; Foreign Countries; Free Recall; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Item Analysis; Learning. Memory; Male; Memory; Memory - physiology; Mental Recall; Nouns; Ontario; Oral Reading; Order processing; Psycholinguistics; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reading Processes; Recall; Retention; Retention (Psychology); Role; Serial Learning; Speech - physiology; Task Analysis; Tests; Vocabulary; Word Lists; Word Recognition; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0278-7393; 1939-1285
• DOI: 10.1037/a0034977

A number of memory phenomena evident in recall in within-subject, mixed-lists designs are reduced or eliminated in between-subject, pure-list designs. The item-order account (McDaniel & Bugg, 2008) proposes that differential retention of order information might underlie this pattern. According to this account, order information may be encoded when a common form of processing is used alone in a list (e.g., reading), but not when an unusual form of processing is used (e.g., generation) or when a common form and an unusual form are mixed within a list. The production effect-better memory for words said aloud than for words read silently-shows this same design-contingent pattern. In 2 experiments, we investigated whether differential order retention might underlie the production effect. Consistent with the item-order account, we found that retention of order information was better in pure silent lists than in either pure aloud lists or mixed lists, as measured using an order reconstruction test. Moreover, in Experiment 2, order was better preserved in free recall of pure silent lists than of either pure aloud or mixed lists. Thus, production joins the set of tasks identified by McDaniel and Bugg (2008), and our findings suggest a role for order processing in explaining the production effect.