Pa. Dewinstanley et El. Bjork, PROCESSING INSTRUCTIONS AND THE GENERATION EFFECT - A TEST OF THE MULTIFACTOR TRANSFER-APPROPRIATE PROCESSING THEORY, Memory, 5(3), 1997, pp. 401-421
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.