Following instructions from working memory: Why does action at encoding and recall help?

Jaroslawska, Agnieszka J., Gathercole, Susan E., Allen, Richard J. and Holmes, Joni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6821-2793 (2016) Following instructions from working memory: Why does action at encoding and recall help? Memory and Cognition, 44. 1183–1191. ISSN 1532-5946

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Abstract

Two experiments investigated the consequences of action at encoding and recall on the ability to follow sequences of instructions. Children ages 7–9 years recalled sequences of spoken action commands under presentation and recall conditions that either did or did not involve their physical performance. In both experiments, recall was enhanced by carrying out the instructions as they were being initially presented and also by performing them at recall. In contrast, the accuracy of instruction-following did not improve above spoken presentation alone, either when the instructions were silently read or heard by the child (Experiment 1), or when the child repeated the spoken instructions as they were presented (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that the enactment advantage at presentation does not simply reflect a general benefit of a dual exposure to instructions, and that it is not a result of their self-production at presentation. The benefits of action-based recall were reduced following enactment during presentation, suggesting that the positive effects of action at encoding and recall may have a common origin. It is proposed that the benefits of physical movement arise from the existence of a short-term motor store that maintains the temporal, spatial, and motoric features of either planned or already executed actions.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 21 Oct 2021 01:26
Last Modified: 23 Oct 2022 03:09
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/81846
DOI: 10.3758/s13421-016-0636-5

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