TY - JOUR
T1 - A procedural explanation of the generation effect for simple and difficult multiplication problems and answers
AU - McNamara, Danielle S.
AU - Healy, Alice F.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are indebted to Michael Ferris for help with Experiment 2 and to James Kole for help with Experiment 3. We are also grateful to Dan Burns, Sal Soraci, and Bob Widner for helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. This research was supported in part by a Postdoctoral Fellowship (Grant 93-12) and by a Career Development Award (Grant 95-56) from the J. S. McDonnell Foundation to Danielle S. McNamara and by Army Research Institute Contracts MDA903-93-K-00010, DASW01-96-K-0010, and DASW01-99-K-0002 and Army Research Office Grant DAAG55-98-1-0214 to the University of Colorado (Alice F. Healy, Principal Investigator).
PY - 2000/11
Y1 - 2000/11
N2 - Three experiments investigated the generation effect for the free recall of multiplication problems and answers. In Experiment 1, a greater generation effect for answer recall was found for participants presented with simple as compared to those presented with difficult multiplication problems. This finding is inconsistent with an explanation of the generation effect in terms of effort. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 and further demonstrated that participants show an equivalent generation effect for problem operands (i.e., the cues) regardless of problem difficulty. Generation accuracy also influenced the magnitude of the generation effect in the difficult problem condition. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1, holding constant problem answers across simple and difficult problems. These experiments collectively demonstrated a generation effect for the answers to arithmetic problems only when participants reinstated at test the cognitive procedures used at study, thus providing further evidence for the procedural account of the generation effect.
AB - Three experiments investigated the generation effect for the free recall of multiplication problems and answers. In Experiment 1, a greater generation effect for answer recall was found for participants presented with simple as compared to those presented with difficult multiplication problems. This finding is inconsistent with an explanation of the generation effect in terms of effort. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 and further demonstrated that participants show an equivalent generation effect for problem operands (i.e., the cues) regardless of problem difficulty. Generation accuracy also influenced the magnitude of the generation effect in the difficult problem condition. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1, holding constant problem answers across simple and difficult problems. These experiments collectively demonstrated a generation effect for the answers to arithmetic problems only when participants reinstated at test the cognitive procedures used at study, thus providing further evidence for the procedural account of the generation effect.
KW - Generation effect; procedural reinstatement; multiplication problem difficulty; arithmetic; cognitive procedures; memory; retrieval; effort
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U2 - 10.1006/jmla.2000.2720
DO - 10.1006/jmla.2000.2720
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0039848310
SN - 0749-596X
VL - 43
SP - 652
EP - 679
JO - Journal of Memory and Language
JF - Journal of Memory and Language
IS - 4
ER -