A procedural explanation of the generation effect for simple and difficultmultiplication problems and answers

Three experiments investigated the generation effect for the free recall of multiplication problems and answers. In Experiment I, a Ere ater generatio n effect for answer recall was found for participants presented with simple as compared to those presented with difficult multiplication problems. Thi s finding is inconsistent with an explanation of the generation effect in t erms of effort. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment I and further demonstrat ed that participants show an equivalent generation effect for problem opera nds (i.e., the cues) regardless of problem difficulty. Generation accuracy also influenced the magnitude of the generation effect in the difficult pro blem condition. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment It holdin g constant problem answers across simple and difficult problems. These expe riments collectively demonstrated a generation effect for the answers to ar ithmetic problems only when participants I reinstated at test the cognitive procedures used at study, thus providing further evidence for the procedur al account of the generation effect, (C) 2000 Academic Press.