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Anagram solving: does effort have an effect?

M A Foley, H J Foley, A Wilder

    Memory & Cognition
    |November 1, 1989
    PubMed
    Summary
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    Effort in solving anagrams aids memory for easy puzzles but not difficult ones. Memory for anagram solutions was better than for the anagrams themselves, regardless of difficulty.

    Area of Science:

    • Cognitive Psychology
    • Human Memory
    • Problem Solving

    Background:

    • Effortful cognitive processes can influence memory formation and retrieval.
    • Understanding how varying levels of task difficulty impact memory is crucial for cognitive science.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate the relationship between cognitive effort and memory recall for anagrams and their solutions.
    • To determine if the difficulty of an anagram task moderates the effect of effort on memory.

    Main Methods:

    • Experiment 1: Compared memory recall after copying words, typing solutions for easy anagrams, or typing solutions for difficult anagrams, using response time to index effort.
    • Experiment 2: Utilized a frequency-judgment task to compare memory for anagrams versus their solutions, varying anagram difficulty.

    Related Experiment Videos

    Main Results:

    • Increased effort (solving anagrams vs. typing) facilitated recall for easy anagram solutions but not for difficult ones.
    • Memory for anagram solutions was superior to memory for anagrams, irrespective of task difficulty.

    Conclusions:

    • Cognitive effort plays a nuanced role in memory, with its benefits potentially limited by task complexity.
    • The findings suggest that memory encoding is influenced by the interaction between effort and problem difficulty.