ENCODING AND EXTERNAL-STORAGE EFFECTS ON WRITING PROCESSES

Across 4 experiments, undergraduate students viewed a 19-min videotape lecture about types of creativity and then wrote a compare-and-contra st essay for 25 min. In Experiments 1 (immediate writing) and 2 (delay ed writing), Ss either listened or took notes under one of 3 note-taki ng formats and then wrote with or without notes. In both experiments, Ss writing from their own notes (encoding plus external storage) compo sed more organized and lengthier essays than Ss writing without their notes (encoding only). Experiments 3 and 4 examined the external-stora ge effect separately from the encoding effect. In delayed writing (Exp eriment 4), Ss composing from provided notes wrote lengthier essays th an Ss composing without notes. Results support the effects of external storage and encoding plus external storage on writing processes.