Reading text aloud benefits memory but not comprehension

The production effect—that reading aloud leads to better memory than does reading silently—has been defined narrowly with reference to memory; it has been explored largely using word lists as the material to be read and remembered. But might the benefit of production extend beyond memory and beyond...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Memory & cognition 2024, Vol.52 (1), p.57-72, Article 57-72
Main Authors: Roberts, Brady R. T., Hu, Zoey S., Curtis, Eloise, Bodner, Glen E., McLean, David, MacLeod, Colin M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Psychology
Comprehension
Experiments
Humans
Memory
Mental Recall
Psychology
Reading
Reading comprehension
Recall
Recognition, Psychology
Research Design
Within-subjects design
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Summary:The production effect—that reading aloud leads to better memory than does reading silently—has been defined narrowly with reference to memory; it has been explored largely using word lists as the material to be read and remembered. But might the benefit of production extend beyond memory and beyond individual words? In a series of four experiments, passages from reading comprehension tests served as the study material. Participants read some passages aloud and others silently. After each passage, they completed multiple-choice questions about that passage. Separating the multiple-choice questions into memory-focused versus comprehension-focused questions, we observed a consistent production benefit only for the memory-focused questions. Production clearly improves memory for text, not just for individual words, and also extends to multiple-choice testing. The overall pattern of findings fits with the distinctiveness account of production—that information read aloud stands out at study and at test from information read silently. Only when the tested information is a very close match to the studied information, as is the case for memory questions but not for comprehension questions, does production improve accuracy.
ISSN:0090-502X
1532-5946
DOI:10.3758/s13421-023-01442-2