Generating drawings enhances the drawing effect relative to replicating drawings

Producing images of to-be-remembered words via drawing often improves memory for the word relative to a control in which the word is written or read silently, a pattern dubbed the drawing effect. Most drawing effect studies have utilised words as memory stimuli, which while promising, limit the external validity where information is often presented in visual and verbal modalities. The present study sought to address this gap by using word-image stimuli, and comparing drawing when individuals replicate a provided image or generate a different image than the one provided. Relative to a writing control task, replicate-drawing and generate-drawing tasks were compared in both mixed - and pure-list designs in free recall. A drawing effect was found in both designs and this effect was more robust when drawings were generated than replicated. Drawing effects were also larger in a mixed - than pure-list design which reflected a mixed-list drawing benefit (higher recall for mixed-list drawing than pure-list drawing) and a mixed-list writing cost (lower recall for mixed-list writing than pure-list writing). Collectively, generating drawings at study appears to be a more powerful memory technique than replicating drawings and both produce a design effect.