PROCESSING INSTRUCTIONS AND THE GENERATION EFFECT - A TEST OF THE MULTIFACTOR TRANSFER-APPROPRIATE PROCESSING THEORY

We report two experiments designed to test further the multifactor tra nsfer-appropriate processing explanation of generation effects (deWins tanley, Bjork, & Bjork, 1996). The present research focuses on the fol lowing assumptions: (a) that processing resources are limited and, thu s, the processing of one type of information can be, and often is, inc ompatible with the processing of other types of information; and (b) t hat reading and generating differ in terms of the flexibility they per mit for the distribution of the subject's processing resources across the available information in an experimental context. These assumption s were tested by examining the consequences of processing instructions on the occurrence of generation effects, and the lack thereof, in fre e recall and cued recall. Across both experiments, identical processin g instructions had strikingly different consequences on the later free -recall and cued-recall performance of subjects who encoded targets by generating them versus reading them, a pattern consistent with the fo regoing assumptions.