090 -- The Effects of Signing On The Production Effect

Memory is an important aspect of our lives and is important to incorporate memory techniques into our lives to help us remember things better. The production effect is the simply finding that words read aloud are better remembered than words read silently. This is a very helpful memory technique, but currently cannot be extended to those who do not use a spoken language, such as those who use sign language. In this study, we start to examine the effect of signing on the production effect using students in the ASL III class at SUNY Geneseo. We used three different online studies, each with a study phase and a recognition test phase. For the first experiment, participants saw a word in either blue or yellow and had to sign the word or read it silently depending on which color was assigned to the condition. They then had to label the words as old or new in the recognition test phase. For the second experiment, the only difference from the first was that participants had to label the word as sign, silent, or new during the recognition test phase. The third experiment involved participants producing two words in spatial arrangement from each other depending on which color was assigned to the condition and then had to place the words into the correct position during the test phase. The data showed a production effect in both the signing condition and the aloud condition meaning memory was enhanced when signing compared to read silently.