Generation effect

The generation effect is a mnemonic effect characterized by a higher level of memorization of information completed (generated) by the person himself in comparison with similar information presented in general for reading , visual viewing or listening.

This effect in the course of their research was discovered by American cognitive psychologists N. Slamecka and P. Graf in 1978. The article in which they published their research on the effect of generation is called "The generation effect: delineation of a phenomenon". During the study, N. Slameka and P. Graf conducted 5 simple experiments that were aimed at comparing the memorization of stimuli (words) that were generated by the subjects themselves and stimuli that were simply presented to the subjects for reading . In all cases, the level of reproducibility and recall in conditions of completion (generation) was higher than in conditions of simple reading. Subsequently, the existence of the phenomenon of the generation effect has been repeatedly confirmed in various studies.

It is also worth noting that as far back as the 40s of the 20th century, the generation effect was described in detail by the Soviet psychologist , a specialist in the field of psychology of memory of P.I. Zinchenko , along with other mnemonic effects. Zinchenko found that children remember the numbers in arithmetic problems that they themselves invented much better than the numbers that were presented to them in ready-made examples. But it is worth noting that only after the research of N. Slameka and P. Graf did the effect of generation become independent in experimental science .

The generation effect is manifested, first of all, due to more complex (detailed) processing of the completed information. Deeper processing carries more semantic load, while a simple “reading” of information comes down only to an audio, visual or other “surface” processing of the input stimulus. Along with this, as an explanation of this phenomenon, it follows that the generation of information requires more cognitive effort and cost than reading , which contributes to a better memorization of this kind of information. Also, the generation process involves the establishment of a larger number of associative relationships, which increases the number of “access routes” to the generated information, as opposed to a simple “read”.