An experiment investigated the memorial effects of three different writing tasks and worksheet exercises assigned as study activities to accompany reading. High school boys and girls read and recalled a pretreatment target text and then read a sequence of topically related passages and reacted to each by paraphrasing, formulating questions, comparing and contrasting, or completing matching exercises on worksheets. Afterward, the students again recalled the target text. A comparison of information given in retelling the target text before and after performing the study tasks indicated that quality of inferences differed according to assigned writing task. Writing questions and compare-contrast statements resulted in the generation of significantly more new information, and writing questions resulted in the recall of proportionally more superordinate information. The results are explained as stemming from the organizing requirements of writing.
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