The Production Effect Improves Memory in 7‐ to 10‐Year‐Old Children

Abstract

The production effect-whereby reading words aloud improves memory for those words relative to reading them silently-was investigated in two experiments with 7-to 10-year-old children residing in Brisbane, Australia. Experiment 1 (n = 41) involved familiar printed words, with words read aloud or silently appearing either in mixed-or blocked-list formats in a within-subject design. Recognition for words read aloud was better than for those read silently, an effect consistent across both list formats. These results were confirmed in Experiment 2 (n = 40) using longer lists of printed novel nonwords. Final analyses indicated that the production effect was comparable for words and nonwords. Findings are discussed in relation to the distinctiveness account and the use of production as a mnemonic in children.

A Shift in the Direction of the Production Effect in Children Aged 2–6 Years

“…Children were trained on images of objects depicting familiar words in different conditions: LOOK (children see the image in silence), LISTEN (children see the image and hear the corresponding word), and SAY (children see the image and produce the corresponding word). In line with theories and models that predict an interaction between task demands and performance on tasks, such as PRIMIR (Werker & Curtin, 2005), and consistent with prior work by Icht and Mama (2015) and Pritchard, Heron-Delaney, Malone, and MacLeod (2019), we predicted that older children would recall more words from the SAY than from the LOOK or LISTEN training conditions. However, we also expected the effect of production could vary as a function of age, for example, younger children might either show an attenuation or a reversal of the production effect, since young children's less mature system may have more difficulty processing words that were produced aloud (Zamuner, Strahm, Morin-Lessard, & Page, 2018).…”

“…Children then saw words printed in black (40 trained, 20 untrained) and were asked to verbally indicate whether they remembered the words from training. Across two experiments with real words and novel words, Pritchard et al (2019) found a recognition advantage for items that were read aloud over those that were read silently. This is consistent with the adult literature using reading paradigms and extends the previous findings from children using images and auditory stimuli (Icht & Mama, 2015) but diverges from , who found a reverse production effect.…”

“…In sum, research on the production effect with children has shown mixed results. Some studies report a production advantage (Icht & Mama, 2015;Pritchard et al, 2019), whereas others found the reverse effect . These differences stem from various interconnected factors: task (learning and testing methodologies), attentional resources (cognitive development), linguistic stimuli (characteristics of the words participants are learning), and experience (age, language experience).…”

“…While the majority of work on the production effect in adults has used reading paradigms, two of the three child-based studies on the topic (Icht & Mama, 2015; used images and auditory stimuli because their participants were too young to read (i.e., 4.5-6 years). Using a reading paradigm, Pritchard et al (2019) addressed whether the production effect held in children aged 7-10 years. In their study, children were trained to read words printed in one color aloud and to read silently words printed in another color.…”

“…It is the processing of that same word on different levels that contributes to stronger encoding, for example, when reading aloud a word, which involves auditory and articulatory processing, versus when reading silently, which involves only visual processing. This has the effect of creating a more robust record in memory, and further retrieval is facilitated (e.g., Icht & Mama, 2019;Jones & Pyc, 2014;Mama & Icht, 2016;Ozubko et al, 2014;Pritchard et al, 2019;Zamuner, Morin-Lessard, Strahm, & Page, 2016).…”