Word Frequency and the Generation Effect
WORD FREQUENCY AND THE GENERATION EFFECT
ABSTRACT
This report aimed to investigate the generation effect occurs for low frequency words. The experiment used a sample of 117 second year Research Method students from Birkbeck Univerity in within and between subject design. There were two independent variables, read and generate items and two dependant variables, low and high frequency. This data was analyzed with related sample t test to examine whether the generation effect occurs for low frequency words and independent sample t test to investigate whether there is a difference between generation effect with low and high frequency words. The results show that there is significant difference between generate and read condition for low frequency words and that the difference scores were not significantly higher for high frequency words than for low frequency words. These findings are discussed in terms of two theories of generation effect, namely the lexical activation hypothesis and the linkage associative hypothesis.
INTRODUCTION
It is generally accepted that ‘learning by doing’ is more beneficial than passive reception of the same information i.e. reading. It is also believed that distinction of the words through bolding, highlighting or using custom fonts, facilitate perception and remembering of the transmitted content. The process called generation effect has been of interest of many scientists who examined memory performance and learning processes.
One of the first experimenters that tried to establish the difference between self-generated word and those externally presented were Slameka and Graf(1978). They used a variety of experimental manipulations i.e. rule of opposite (hot-cold), cued and uncued stimulus or within and between design. They found out that generation effect is an effect of practice in generation condition and that responses are better remembered than the stimuli. They also argued that the interaction between
ABSTRACT
This report aimed to investigate the generation effect occurs for low frequency words. The experiment used a sample of 117 second year Research Method students from Birkbeck Univerity in within and between subject design. There were two independent variables, read and generate items and two dependant variables, low and high frequency. This data was analyzed with related sample t test to examine whether the generation effect occurs for low frequency words and independent sample t test to investigate whether there is a difference between generation effect with low and high frequency words. The results show that there is significant difference between generate and read condition for low frequency words and that the difference scores were not significantly higher for high frequency words than for low frequency words. These findings are discussed in terms of two theories of generation effect, namely the lexical activation hypothesis and the linkage associative hypothesis.
INTRODUCTION
It is generally accepted that ‘learning by doing’ is more beneficial than passive reception of the same information i.e. reading. It is also believed that distinction of the words through bolding, highlighting or using custom fonts, facilitate perception and remembering of the transmitted content. The process called generation effect has been of interest of many scientists who examined memory performance and learning processes.
One of the first experimenters that tried to establish the difference between self-generated word and those externally presented were Slameka and Graf(1978). They used a variety of experimental manipulations i.e. rule of opposite (hot-cold), cued and uncued stimulus or within and between design. They found out that generation effect is an effect of practice in generation condition and that responses are better remembered than the stimuli. They also argued that the interaction between