[Effect of information generation on incidental memory of words]

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of information generation on incidental memory of words. Subjects in the subject-generated group were asked to generate a converging associate of three targets in each triplet. Subjects in the experimenter-provided group were asked to rate the relation between targets and a paired-presented word on 5-point scale. Each subject in both groups were given an unexpected free recall test. Recall performance for targets in each unrelated triplet in the subject-generated group was higher than in the experimenter-provided one. Conditional probability of recalling targets given relational information was an index of effectiveness of within-item elaboration. This index was higher in the subject-generated group. These results were interpreted as showing that the effect of information generation was caused by the effectiveness of within-item elaboration.