Being honest about college…. studying often feels like continuous highlighting of textbooks, thousands of lecture slides that all start to look the same, and magically hoping some of the needed information will be understood for the next day’s exam. The good news is that cognitive psychology has an amazing trick up its sleeve that can help you out and it’s something called the generation effect. By understanding the generation effect, it could make the difference between truly remembering the material long term and just memorizing the material for a test. At this level of study, you will be expected to learn new material and apply it to new learning so it’s important not just to memorize.
What is the Generation Effect?
The generation effect is a well-established phenomenon in cognitive psychology that mentions how people remember information more effectively when they generate it themselves rather than just listening to it in a passive manner or just reading the material. As first described formally by Slamecka and Graf in 1789, the concept is simple when you actively engage with the information by completing a sentence, explaining a concept in your own words, or creating flashcards you process it more deeply. This deeper processing leads to stronger memory traces which makes the information much easier to recall in the future.
As Graf and Slamecka wrote in their core research study, “Five experiments… showed that performance in the generated condition was superior to that in the read condition… under cured and uncured recognition, free and cued recall, confidence ratings”.[1] These findings established that the generation effect is not just a onetime study but it is a powerful memory principle that is supported by many years of research. When research is complete, long term and repeatable, you have every confidence in the usefulness of the information.
This process taps into many areas of psychological cognition, when you generate information your attention increases, and your brain drives into deeper semantic processing. The material becomes more significantly encoded because you are connecting it to things you have already learned before. In contrast to skimming a page three times and realizing that you still have no idea what you read. Generation makes learning actively rather than passively and that is a major difference in studying. Having active learning occurring while you study will help new information be understood when connected with information already learned.
Applying the Generation Effect to Your Study Routine!
Knowing about the generation effect is amazing but applying it is what really improves your studying habits. Instead of relying on pre-made study tools, try creating study tools for yourself instead. Creating your own study tools is important as all learners are different, so there is no one type of study skill that fits all students. For instance, make flashcards from scratch instead of using someone else’s flashcards. The act of decking what to include and how to word it pushes your brain to work with the material. Or you could turn your notes into fill-in-the-blank questions and try to recall the answers later. An even better option is to pretend you are the professor and explain the concept out loud to your pet, a friend, or even your reflection. Teaching others about the material you are learning about is the best way to teach yourself.
Cognitive scientists strongly believe that this is the case because self-generation improves both relation processing and item specific. As Madan et al. study suggests, “self-generation improves memory through two memory mechanisms: 1) increased item-specific processing… and 2) increased relational processing of information presented with the item”. [2] These two mechanisms work together to help your brain not only remember specific facts but also the relationships and context between them.
The effects of self-generation are not limited to basic classroom learning. They also try to apply to people with cognitive impairments. As a matter of fact, one study discovered that “self-generation significantly improved verbal learning and memory in individuals with TBI [traumatic brain injury]” and said that this method could be useful in cognitive recovery. [3] That shows how flexible and powerful this type of approach can be. It is not just for memorizing vocab items, but it can also help rebuild memory systems in the brain.
Mysteriously, not all generations are created equal, McDaniel et al. in 1988 found that “generation can have varying effects on memory for contextual or source information associated with words”. [4] This depends on the type of task and how well the learner processes the details of the task. So, the whole generation helps most with remembering the main idea, not so much the small details or exceptions to the idea. The way you form your task can also influence how well you remember other more detailed information like descriptive details and comments.
And ultimately, to link it all together “Central to the generation effect is the idea of cognitive engagement. When individuals are actively involved in generating information, they engage in deeper processing… [which] leads to better memory retention”. [5] To put it in more similar terms the more your brain works during learning, the more it remembers in the future. The learned material becomes more long term than short term just for the test.
Bonus Meme Break (Since Memes = Learning Right?)
Apart from the memes, this psychology speaking generation is better than passive review for studying.
Wrapping Up: Make Your Brain Work for You!
The generation effect reminds us of something that is more powerful and that is that memory is not just about repetition it is about interacting with the material. If you want to truly remember what you are studying do not settle for strategies that are passive like highlighting or re-reading. Take the time to create items specific to your learning like explaining, writing, questioning, and creating things about the material. When you do this your brain does not just store the information it also remembers and understands the material. So, the next time you need to study something do not be tempted to copy notes or just skim a summary of what you are learning but instead pause and ask yourself “what can I make out of this material instead?” your future self and your grades will thank you.
- Slamecka, N. J., & Graf, P. (1978). The generation effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 4(6), 592-604.
- McDaniel, M. A. Waddill, P. J., & Einstein, G. O. (1988). A contextual account of the generation effect: A three-factor theory. Journal of Memory and Language, 27(5), 521-536.
- Madan, C. R., Gilsky, E. L., & Cooper, E. (2022). Cognitive mechanisms underlying the generation effect: Support for item-specific and relational processing. Memory & cognition, 50(4), 598-610.
- Fleming, J. M., et al. (2016). The benefits of self-generation on verbal learning and memory in people with traumatic brain injury. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 26(5-6), 767-788.
- Dunlosky, J., & Rawson, K. A. (2015). Cognitive science in education: The generation effect and how to use it to improve student learning. Educational Psychology Review, 27(3), 453-464
