Short-term recall of order information: influence of encoding and generation processes on distinctiveness, isolation, and background effects.

We examined the influence of encoding and generation processes on distinctiveness, isolation, and background effects in short-term recall of order information. Adults recalled the order of letters in one of two segments following a distractor task, knowing in advance the identity of the letters. A distinctive letter was one that was either in red or absent and replaced with a red dash, thereby requiring generation. On trials with a distinctive letter, the letter was primed in advance. A negative generation effect was found; in addition, there was a positive distinctiveness effect but a negative background effect on trials in which generation was required. These effects can be explained in terms of the extra processing given to distinctive items when they need to be generated.