Aging and the production effect: a test of the distinctiveness account

The production effect refers to the benefit in memory for items read aloud relative to items read silently during study. Previous research has explained this benefit as due to distinctiveness, attributable to the additional dimension of encoding for the aloud items that is later used during retrieval. We investigated the production effect in older adults, a population known to have difficulty using distinctiveness to assist remembering. Results showed a production benefit for both younger and older adults on both recall and recognition tests; however, this benefit was reliably smaller for older adults on both measures of memory. This pattern addresses both a theoretical issue and an applied issue: (1) that the role of distinctiveness is pivotal in the production effect, and (2) that production does assist older people in remembering.