Does generation benefit learning for narrative and expository texts? A direct replication attempt

Abstract

Generated information is better recognized and recalled than information that is read. This generation effect has been replicated several times for different types of material, including texts. Perhaps the most influential demonstration is by McDaniel, Einstein, Dunay, and Cobb (Journal of Memory and Language, 1986, 25(6), 645–656; henceforth MEDC). This group tested whether the generation effect occurs only if the generation task stimulates cognitive processes not already stimulated by the text. Numerous studies, however, report difficulties replicating this text by generation-task interaction, which suggests that the effect might only be found under conditions closer to the original method of MEDC. To test this assumption, the present study closely replicated MEDC's Experiment 2 in two separate German and English-speaking samples. The present study provided partial evidence in favor of the expected interaction, which ultimately depended on successful completion of the generation task (with near-to-perfect accuracy). Moreover, it indicates that sentence unscrambling might enhance learning across genres.