EFFECTS OF GENERATION ON IMMEDIATE MEMORY SPAN AND DELAYED UNEXPECTEDFREE-RECALL

We investigated the effects of generating words from fragments on pron unciation time, on immediate memory span, and on delayed free recall. Subjects read long words and short words aloud or generated them from strings with missing letters. Word-length and generation condition had multiplicative effects on speaking rate, as expected if each affected a separate process regulating the rate. We replicated the standard fi nding that span is smaller for longer words. Generation improved delay ed free recall, indicating that relatively brief presentation times ar e adequate to produce a generation effect. Although generation improve d long-term memory for the words, memory span was shorter for the word s that were generated. The harmful effect of generation on span appear s to be due to its slowing of speaking rate.