Tested the effects of a procedure for controlling word encodings on recognition memory of acoustic encoding and 2 types of semantic encoding. 64 undergraduates were instructed to produce rhymes, synonyms, associations, or simply to learn the words. Instructions affected both overall performance and direction of distraction on a subsequent recognition list. Associative and learning groups falsely recognized semantic distractors, while the acoustic (rhyming) group falsely recognized only acoustic distractors. The synonym group was not distracted by any word type. Overall performance was synonym > associative > learning > acoustic. Results of a 2nd experiment with 16 new undergraduate Ss, using only associative distractors, generally confirm the main findings of the 1st experiment. It is suggested that the general order of performance among groups reflects the differential tendency of the instructions to encourage a semantic focus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)