Abstract: Production effect refers to the typical finding that words learned by reading aloud are better remembered than those learned silently. Currently, there are two theoretical explanations to account for the production effect, namely, the distinctiveness account and the strength account. According to the distinctiveness account, words being read aloud are particularly distinctive compared to words being read silently, pronunciation improves memory. However, strength account claims that the production effect is due to the difference of coding strength, coding strength is simply greater for words being read aloud. Previous studies of production effect mainly focused on a specific group, lack exploration of effect changing from the perspective of development. In the present study, we aimed to test the two theoretical explanations and further explored the development characteristics of the production effect of Chinese written word. One hundred and ninety-two participants with normal reading ability participated in the experiment, of which 40 are in grade three, 39 in grade five, 37 in grade seven, 36 in grade eight, and 40 in college. We investigated the influence of reading mode and learning frequency on the production effect using the learning-testing (corresponding to encoding and recognition, respectively) paradigm. Therefore, the present study was a 2 (reading mode: loud reading, silent reading) ×2 (learning frequency: one time, three times) ×5 (grade: grade three, grade five, grade seven, grade eight, college students) mixed design, and the dependent variable was the memory performance. According to the distinctiveness account, learning frequency should not influence the production effect, whereas the strength account predicts that the production effect should increase when learning frequency increase. The results showed that: (a) Main effect of grade occurred, with the memory performance of college students was significantly better than that of students in grade three, grade five, and grade seven; the memory performance of grade five, grade seven, and grade eight was significantly better than that of grade three. (b) The main effect of reading mode was significant, with the memory performance of reading aloud being significantly better than that of silent reading. (c) The main effect of learning frequency was also significant, with the memory performance of learning three times being significantly better than that of learning only once. (d) The interaction between grade and reading mode was significant. Further analysis showed that the memory performance of college students was significantly better than that of grade three in the loud reading memory, but not better than that of grade five, which indicated that the memory of loud reading tends to be mature in grade five; the memory performance of college students was significantly better than that of grade three, grade five and grade seven in the silent reading memory, but not significantly better than that of grade eight, which indicated that the memory of silent reading tends to be mature in grade eight. The difference in the production effect between grade seven and college students was not significant. The interaction between grade, reading mode and learning frequency was not significant, which supported the distinctiveness account.

Key words: reading aloud, reading silently, learning frequency, production effect

摘要： 产生效应指朗读单词的记忆成绩要好于默读单词的记忆成绩。采用“学习-再认”的实验范式，以小学三年级、小学五年级、初一、初二和大学生为被试，采用2（阅读方式：朗读，默读）×2（学习次数：1次，3次）×5（年级：三年级，五年级，初一，初二，大学）的混合设计，探讨中文词汇产生效应的发展特点。结果发现：（1）年级的主效应显著，大学生的记忆成绩显著高于三年级、五年级和初一学生的；五年级、初一和初二学生的记忆成绩显著高于三年级学生的；（2）阅读方式的主效应显著，朗读的记忆成绩显著高于默读的；（3）学习次数的主效应显著，3次的记忆成绩显著高于1次的；（4）阅读方式和年级的交互作用显著，在朗读的记忆成绩上，小学三年级的与大学生的差异显著，但小学五年级、初一、初二学生的和大学生的差异均不显著，说明朗读的记忆成绩在小学五年级趋于成熟；在默读的记忆成绩上，小学三年级、五年级、初一学生的均与大学生的差异显著，初二学生的与大学生的无显著差异，表明默读的记忆成绩在初二年级趋于成熟。初一学生的产生效应大小与大学生的无差异。研究结果支持产生效应的特异观。

关键词: 朗读, 默读, 学习次数, 产生效应