EFFECT OF INFORMATION GENERATION ON INCID ENTAL MEMORY OF WORDS

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of informa tion generation on incidental memory of words. Subjects in the subject -generated group were asked to generate a converging associate of thre e targets in each triplet. Subjects in the experimenter-provided group were asked to rate the relation between targets and a paired-presente d word on 5-point scale. Each subject in both groups were given an une xpected free recall test. Recall performance for targets in each unrel ated triplet in the subject-generated group was higher than in the exp erimenter-provided one. Conditional probablity of recalling targets gi ven relational information was an index of effectiveness of within-ite m elaboration. This index was higher in the subject-generated group. T hese results were interpreted as showing that the effect of informatio n generation was caused by the effectiveness of within-item elaboratio n.