Production and Preschoolers: Is There a Benefit and Do They Know?

Although the production effect is well-established in undergraduates, limited research has examined this effect in children. The primary goal of the current study was to replicate the production effect in preschoolers. In Experiment 1, one group studied all items silently or aloud (pure lists) and another group studied half of the items silently and said half aloud (mixed lists). At recall, the production effect was present in mixed lists but not in pure lists. The results suggest that the effect in mixed lists was due to both a benefit for produced items and a cost to silent items. Experiments 2 and 3 examined whether preschoolers were aware of the benefits of production. The results were mixed and indicate that task difficulty may impact whether production benefits memory. When the metacognitive task was easier (Experiment 3), the production effect replicated. Preschoolers' judgments indicated they believe that production leads to better memory, but they were overconfident. The current results demonstrate that (1) young children can use production to improve memory when instructed, even before they spontaneously use it, (2) they believe production can benefit memory, and (3) task difficulty may account for discrepancies in prior work examining the production effect in children.