A computational account of the production effect: Still playing twenty questions with nature

People remember words that they read aloud better than words that they read silently, a result known as the production effect. The standing explanation for the production effect is that producing a word renders it distinctive in memory and, thus, memorable at test. By 1 key account, distinctiveness is defined in terms of sensory feedback. We formalize the sensory-feedback account using MINERVA 2, a standard model of memory. The model accommodates the basic result in recognition as well as the fact that the mixed-list production effect is larger than its pure-list counterpart, that the production effect is robust to forgetting, and that the production and generation effects have additive influences on performance. A final simulation addresses the strength-based account and suggests that it will be more difficult to distinguish a strength-based versus distinctiveness-based explanation than is typically thought. We conclude that the production effect is consistent with existing theory and discuss our analysis in relation to Alan Newell's (1973) classic criticism of psychology and call for an analysis of psychological principles instead of laboratory phenomena. (PsycINFO Database Record