The impact of phonological similarity on production effect

The production effect refers to the phenomenon that reading aloud results in better memory than reading silently. Researchers often use the distinctiveness account to explain the production effect. However, some studies have questioned this theory and found that, in a recognition task, homophonic interference of the targets during the retrieval stage does not affect the production effect. Based on this, four experiments were conducted in which the phonological similarity of Chinese characters was systematically manipulating to explore the impact of phonological similarity on the production effect and to further test the distinctiveness account. The findings revealed that the same pronunciation with the strongest phonological similarity could eliminate the production effect (Experiment 1a). This phenomenon remained impervious to individual differences among the participants (Experiment 1b). However, this elimination could be restored by word generation (Experiment 2). In contrast, the same tone or consonant, despite exhibiting weaker phonological similarity, did not affect the production effect. Conversely, the same vowel enhanced it (Experiment 3). The attenuating effect of identical pronunciation at retrieval on the production effect was also observed (Experiment 4). These findings indicate that the enhancement of differences in the encoding stage and the utilization of production records in the retrieval stage are key factors of the production effect which is an interaction between the production records and the experimental materials. The experimental materials affect the production effect by altering the formation and use of the records.