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. 2024 Jan;52(1):57-72.
doi: 10.3758/s13421-023-01442-2. Epub 2023 Jul 13.

Reading text aloud benefits memory but not comprehension

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Reading text aloud benefits memory but not comprehension

Brady R T Roberts et al. Mem Cognit. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

The production effect-that reading aloud leads to better memory than does reading silently-has been defined narrowly with reference to memory; it has been explored largely using word lists as the material to be read and remembered. But might the benefit of production extend beyond memory and beyond individual words? In a series of four experiments, passages from reading comprehension tests served as the study material. Participants read some passages aloud and others silently. After each passage, they completed multiple-choice questions about that passage. Separating the multiple-choice questions into memory-focused versus comprehension-focused questions, we observed a consistent production benefit only for the memory-focused questions. Production clearly improves memory for text, not just for individual words, and also extends to multiple-choice testing. The overall pattern of findings fits with the distinctiveness account of production-that information read aloud stands out at study and at test from information read silently. Only when the tested information is a very close match to the studied information, as is the case for memory questions but not for comprehension questions, does production improve accuracy.

Keywords: Comprehension; Memory; Production effect; Reading; Text.

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