Stop talking : inhibiting the production effect

The Production Effect is a phenomenon where produced words are remembered more accurately than non-produced words. This thesis explores the potential for inhibited words to elicit a similar effect as measured by recognition accuracy. Twenty adults in Australia participated in an experimental study, with four removed from analysis due to experimental error. The remaining 16 participants were aged 18 to 25, \\(M\\) = 21.38, \\(SD\\) = 2.13. Participants were divided into two groups. They were asked to study a list of 82 verbs before completing a subsequent old-new and know-familiar recognition test. In the experimental group, participants spoke items in blue text unless an X appeared, which prompted them to inhibit their response. In the control group, participants were instructed to speak blue items and silently read white items. The differences in accuracy between spoken, inhibited, and silently read words were compared using three two-by-two ANOVAs. Inhibited items did not significantly differ from spoken or silently read items in terms of accuracy. These results suggest that the Production Effect may only be elicited when items are produced. There were several potential confounds influencing results, particularly in regard to how the paradigm was constructed.