The influence of the psicholinguistic variables on the generation effect.

Abstract

The generation effect has demonstrated to be an effective technique to improve learning and memory of several types of materials. However, this effect has not been found when meaningless materials are used, such as pseudowords. That is why it is logical to think that the familiarity of the stimuli (their frequency and age of acquisition) could influence the efficacy of this technique. To test this hypothesis two experiments, in which the frequency and the age of acquisition were manipulated, were carried out. The power of the generation effect did not allow the effects of these two variables to become evident in the recall task, but both influenced the recognition task. A “mirror effect” of frequency and age of acquisition was obtained, as the participants recognized the unfamiliar better than the familiar stimuli.