[2] This effect has also been demonstrated using a variety of other materials, such as when generating a word after being presented with its antonym,[3] synonym,[1] picture,[4] arithmetic problems,[2][5] or keyword in a paragraph.
[7] According to the lexical activation hypothesis, the participant must search their semantic memory during the process of generation.
This type of manipulation would promote whole-list relational processing, which may enhance generation performance on a free recall test.
Other manipulations can emphasize cue-target processing, thus helping generation performance on cued recall tests.
[11] In another study, participants who used a processing strategy (imagery) that was more effective than reading performed just as well as those who generated.
This warrants some concern because if the generation effect is to be incorporated into educational practices such as classroom teaching, we would want it to help students learn new material.
The generation effect might prove to be a useful strategy for learning, especially for remembering educational material.
Researchers at UCLA and UC Berkeley are investigating ways to incorporate learning strategies including the generation effect, as well as other "desirable difficulties", into the classroom.
There are several reports in the literature that suggest that individuals diagnosed with DAT (dementia of the Alzheimer type) do not show the generation effect.
Researchers Kristi S. Multhaup and David A. Balota had participants read some sentences (e.g., "The horse jumped the fence.")
[18] However, more recent work challenges the idea animals display the generation effect.