Abstract
A number of memory phenomena are modulated by experimental design, with the effect (e.g., of bizarreness, generation, or perceptual interference) occurring in recall for mixed-list, but not pure-list designs. These effects have other similarities and have been treated in common theoretical frameworks, some focusing on encoding and others on retrieval. The typical paradigm for examining design effects confounds encoding and retrieval contexts, making it difficult to compare these accounts. Using a new paradigm, McDaniel, Dornburg, and Guynn (2005) concluded that retrieval processes contribute to the bizarreness effect. We applied this paradigm to the related perceptual-interference and generation effects. Participants were presented with two pure study lists and later recalled the lists separately (inducing pure retrieval sets) or together (inducing a combined or mixed retrieval set) in a single test. In four experiments, the combined recall condition consistently failed to enhance the size of the generation or perceptual-interference effect. Two additional experiments verified that perceptual interference and generation enhanced recognition memory, as predicted by the standard encoding accounts. The results provide no support for the retrieval account of these two variables but generally are consistent with an encoding locus.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Battig, W. F., & Montague, W. E. (1969). Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories: A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms. Journal of Experimental Psychology Monographs, 80 (3, Pt. 2), 1–46.
Begg, I., & Snider, A. (1987). The generation effect: Evidence for generalized inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 13, 553–563.
Begg, I., Snider, A., Foley, F., & Goddard, R. (1989). The generation effect is no artifact: Generating makes words distinctive. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 15, 977–989.
Bertsch, S., Pesta, B. J., Wiscott, R., & McDaniel, M. A. (2007). The generation effect: A meta-analytic review. Memory & Cognition, 35, 201–210.
Burns, D. J. (1990). The generation effect: A test between single- and multifactor theories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16, 1060–1067.
Cox, S. D., & Wollen, K. A. (1981). Bizarreness and recall. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 18, 244–245.
DeLosh, E. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (1996). The role of order information in free recall: Application to the word-frequency effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 22, 1136–1146.
deWinstanley, P. A., Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (1996). Generation effects and the lack thereof: The role of transfer-appropriate processing. Memory, 4, 31–48.
Engelkamp, J., & Dehn, D. M. (2000). Item and order information in subject-performed tasks and experimenter-performed tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 26, 671–682.
Engelkamp, J., Jahn, P., & Seiler, K. H. (2003). The item-order hypothesis reconsidered: The role of order information in free recall. Psychological Research, 67, 280–290.
Erlebacher, A. (1977). Design and analysis of experiments contrasting the within- and between-subjects manipulation of the independent variable. Psychological Bulletin, 84, 212–219.
Gardiner, J. M., & Hampton, J. A. (1988). Item-specific processing and the generation effect: Support for a distinctiveness account. American Journal of Psychology, 101, 495–504.
Hadley, C. B., & MacKay, D. G. (2006). Does emotion help or hinder immediate memory? Arousal versus priority-binding mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 32, 79–88.
Healy, A. F., Shea, K. M., Kole, J. A., & Cunningham, T. F. (2008). Position distinctiveness, item familiarity, and presentation frequency affect reconstruction of order in immediate episodic memory. Journal of Memory & Language, 58, 746–764.
Hirshman, E., & Bjork, R. A. (1988). The generation effect: Support for a two-factor theory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 14, 484–494.
Hirshman, E., & Mulligan, N. W. (1991). Perceptual interference improves explicit memory but does not enhance data-driven processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 17, 507–513.
Hirshman, E., Trembath, D., & Mulligan, N. W. (1994). Theoretical implications of the mnemonic benefits of perceptual interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 20, 608–620.
Hunt, R. R., & Elliott, J. M. (1980). The role of nonsemantic information in memory: Orthographic distinctiveness effects on retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 109, 49–74.
Hunt, R. R., & McDaniel, M. A. (1993). The enigma of organization and distinctiveness. Journal of Memory & Language, 32, 421–445.
Kinoshita, S. (1989). Generation enhances semantic processing? The role of distinctiveness in the generation effect. Memory & Cognition, 17, 563–571.
Kučera, H., & Francis, W. N. (1967). Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence, RI: Brown University Press.
McDaniel, M. A., & Bugg, J. M. (2008). Instability in memory phenomena: A common puzzle and a unifying explanation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 237–255.
McDaniel, M. A., DeLosh, E. L., & Merritt, P. S. (2000). Order information and retrieval distinctiveness: Recall of common versus bizarre material. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 26, 1045–1056.
McDaniel, M. A., Dornburg, C. C., & Guynn, M. J. (2005). Disentangling encoding versus retrieval explanations of the bizarreness effect: Implications for distinctiveness. Memory & Cognition, 33, 270–279.
McDaniel, M. A., & Einstein, G. O. (1986). Bizarre imagery as an effective memory aid: The importance of distinctiveness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 12, 54–65.
McDaniel, M. A., & Geraci, L. (2006). Encoding and retrieval processes in distinctiveness effects: Toward an integrative framework. In R. R. Hunt & J. B. Worthen (Eds.), Distinctiveness and memory. (pp. 65–88). New York: Oxford University Press.
McDaniel, M. A., Riegler, G. L., & Waddill, P. J. (1990). Generation effects in free recall: Further support for a three-factor theory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16, 789–798.
Mulligan, N. W. (1996). The effects of perceptual interference at encoding on implicit memory, explicit memory, and memory for source. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 22, 1067–1087.
Mulligan, N. W. (1999). The effects of perceptual interference at encoding on organization and order: Investigating the roles of item-specific and relational information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 25, 54–69.
Mulligan, N. W. (2000). Perceptual interference and memory for order. Journal of Memory & Language, 43, 680–697.
Mulligan, N. W. (2001). Generation and hypermnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 27, 436–450.
Mulligan, N. W. (2002a). The emergence of item-specific encoding effects in between-subjects designs: Perceptual interference and multiple recall tests. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 375–382.
Mulligan, N. W. (2002b). The emergent generation effect and hypermnesia: Influences of semantic and nonsemantic generation tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 28, 541–554.
Mulligan, N. W., & Lozito, J. P. (2004). Self-generation and memory. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol 45, pp. 175–214). San Diego: Academic Press.
Mulligan, N. W., & Lozito, J. P. (2007). Order information and free recall: Evaluating the item-order hypothesis. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 732–751.
Nairne, J. S. (1988). The mnemonic value of perceptual identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 14, 248–255.
Nairne, J. S., Riegler, G. L., & Serra, M. (1991). Dissociative effects of generation on item and order retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 17, 702–709.
Nairne, J. S., & Widner, R. L. (1988). Familiarity and lexicality as determinants of the generation effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 14, 694–699.
Peynircioğlu, Z. F., & Mungan, E. (1993). Familiarity, relative distinctiveness, and the generation effect. Memory & Cognition, 21, 367–374.
Roediger, H. L., III (2008). Relativity of remembering: Why the laws of memory vanished. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 225–254.
Roenker, D. L., Thompson, C. P., & Brown, S. C. (1971). Comparison of measures for the estimation of clustering in free recall. Psychological Bulletin, 76, 45–48.
Schmidt, S. R. (1994). Effects of humor on sentence memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 20, 953–967.
Schmidt S. R. (in press). Distinctiveness and memory: A theoretical and empirical review. In J. H. Byrne (Series Ed.) & H. L. Roediger III (Vol. Ed.), Learning and memory: A comprehensive reference. Vol. 2: Cognitive psychology of memory. San Diego: Academic Press.
Slamecka, N. J., & Graf, P. (1978). The generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory, 4, 592–604.
Slamecka, N. J., & Katsaiti, L. T. (1987). The generation effect as an artifact of selective displaced rehearsal. Journal of Memory & Language, 26, 589–607.
Steffens, M. C., & Erdfelder, E. (1998). Determinants of positive and negative generation effects in free recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 51A, 705–733.
Talmi, D., Luk, B. T. C., McGarry, L. M., & Moscovitch, M. (2007). The contribution of relatedness and distinctiveness to emotionally-enhanced memory. Journal of Memory & Language, 56, 555–574.
Westerman, D. L., & Greene, R. L. (1997). The effects of visual masking on recognition: Similarities to the generation effect. Journal of Memory & Language, 37, 584–596.
Worthen, J. B. (2006). Resolution of discrepant memory strengths: An explanation of the effects of bizarreness on memory. In R. R. Hunt & J. B. Worthen (Eds.), Distinctiveness and memory (pp. 133–156). New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mulligan, N.W., Peterson, D. Assessing a retrieval account of the generation and perceptual-interference effects. Memory & Cognition 36, 1371–1382 (2008). https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.36.8.1371
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.36.8.1371