Expertise and the Generation Effect

The ”generation effect” (Slamecka & Graf, 1978) refers to the greater memorability of internally generated versus externally presented stimuli. Explanations for the effect have centered on the suggestion that internal generation results in greater elaboration of the generated items than of externally presented items. In the present study, expert and novice subjects generated or read words in a domain for which their expertise (or lack thereof) was relevant, and a domain for which it was irrelevant. The results showed a generation effect only for experts, and only in their area of expertise. Our results are supportive, therefore, of the notion that the act of generation alone may not be sufficient to produce a generation effect. The effect may occur only when the generated material contacts an elaborate and redundantly connected network.