Abstract
An “aha” effect in memory was first reported by Auble, Franks, and Soraci (1979). They demonstrated that recall was greater for sentences that were initially incomprehensible but which were eventually comprehended, as compared with sentences that were understood from the outset. The present studies extend this “aha” effect to memory for pictorial stimuli. In Experiment 1, a recall advantage for pictures encoded by connecting the dots as compared with those encoded by tracing or visual scanning occurred only in the absence of foreknowledge of the picture (i.e., an “aha” effect). In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding and obtained evidence that conceptually based, verbal foreknowledge does not function in a similar manner as does pictorial foreknowledge in suppressing the “aha” recall advantage. These results place important constraints on previous research on generation effects for visual stimuli and attest to the cross-modal generalizability of the “aha” effect.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Auble, P. M., Franks, J. J., &Soraci, S. A. J. (1979). Effort toward comprehension: Elaboration or “aha!”?Memory & Cognition,7, 426–434.
Bruner, J. C., &Potter, M. C. (1964). Interference in visual recognition.Science,144, 424–425.
Engelkamp, J., Zimmer, H. D., Mohr, G., &Sellen, O. (1994). Memory of self-performed tasks: Self-performing during recognition.Memory & Cognition,22, 34–39.
Glisky, E. L., &Rabinowitz, J. C. (1985). Enhancing the generation effect through repetition of operations.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,11, 193–205.
Graf, P. (1982). The memorial consequences of generation and transformation.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,21, 539–548.
Jacoby, L. M. (1978). On interpreting the effects of repetition: Solving a problem versus remembering a solution.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,17, 649–667.
Johns, E. J., &Swanson, L. G. (1988). The generation effect with nonwords.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,14, 180–190.
McDaniel, M. A., Waddill, P. J., &Einstein, G. O. (1988). A contextual account of the generation effect: A three-factor theory.Journal of Memory & Language,27, 521–536.
McElroy, L. A. (1987). The generation effect with homographs: Evidence for postgeneration processing.Memory & Cognition,15, 148–153.
McNamara, D. S., &Healy, A. F. (1995). A procedural explanation of the generation effect: The use of an operand retrieval strategy for multiplication and addition problems.Journal of Memory & Language,34, 399–416.
Morris, C. D., Bransford, J. D., &Franks, J. J. (1977). Levels of processing versus transfer appropriate processing.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,16, 519–533.
Peynircioĝlu, Z. F. (1989). The generation effect with pictures and nonsense figures.Acta Psychologica,70, 153–160.
Roenker, D. L., Wenger, S. K., Thompson, C. P., &Watkins, B. (1978). Depth of processing: When the principal of congruity fails.Memory & Cognition,6, 288–295.
Slamecka, N. J., &Graf, P. (1978). The generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,4, 592–604.
Smith, R. W., &Healy, A. F. (1998). The time-course of the generation effect.Memory & Cognition,26, 135–142.
Soraci, S. A., Carlin, M. T., Chechile, R. A., Franks, J. J., Wills, T., &Watanabe, T. (1999). Encoding variability and cuing in generative processing.Journal of Memory & Language,41, 541–559.
Soraci, S. A., Franks, J. J., Bransford, J. D., Chechile, R. A., Belli, R. F., Carr, M., &Carlin, M. (1994). Incongruous item generation effects: A multiple-cue perspective.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,20, 67–78.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grants KO4IIDOO921 and RO1 HD23682 awarded to Tufts University and the E. K. Shriver Center for Mental Retardation, Inc., respectively. This work was also supported in part by the Department of Mental Retardation of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Contract 100220023SC).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wills, T.W., Soraci, S.A., Chechile, R.A. et al. “Aha” effects in the generation of pictures. Memory & Cognition 28, 939–948 (2000). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209341
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209341