Människor tenderar att minnas utförda uppgifter och återkalla dem bättre än när de enbart kodar samma uppgifter muntligt, även känd som enactment effekt. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka om enactment effecten ökar under en ny inkodning som aldrig tidigare utförts inom paradigmet – Subject-Experimenter-Performed-Task. Sammanlagt medverkade 56 personer i studien, 32 killar och 24 tjejer i åldrarna 10-18. En grupp lågstadiebarn och en grupp gymnasieungdomar testades i VT, EPT, SPT och SEPT betingningar. Effekten av enactment har visat sig vara tydligast i SEPT inkodningen i både free och cued recall. Resultaten och eventuella köns- och åldersskillnader diskuteras utifrån episodic integration teorin.

The research reported in the present explored the interaction between perception and action, focusing on how this might occur under memory conditions. This was done in line with the proposals of grounded cognition and situated action, in which action and perception are tightly linked, and able to influence one another in order to aid the performance of a task. Following this idea of a bi-directional loop between the two processes, studies were conducted which focused on each side of this relationship, in conditions where memory would be necessary. The first experiments investigated how the perception of objects and the memory of those perceived objects could influence the production of actions. Later studies examined how the preparation and performance of actions could affect the perception of a scene, and subsequent recall of the objects presented. Throughout these studies, object properties (e.g., shape, colour, position) were used as a means to either manipulate or measure the effect of the tasks. The findings of the studies suggested that weighting an off-line memory representation by means of the task setting was possible, but that this was not an automatic occurrence. Based on the results obtained, it seemed that there were conditions which would affect whether memories could be tailored to the current demands of the tasks, and that these conditions were linked to the realism of the situation. Factors such as the task complexity, the potential for object interaction and the immersive environment were all suggested as possible contributors to the construction and use of weighted representations. Overall, the studies conducted suggest that memory can play a role in guiding action, as on-line perception does, so long as the situation makes it clear that this is necessary. If such weightings are useful, then the memory will be constructed accordingly. However, if the situation is such that there is no clear task, then the memory representations will remain unaffected and unprepared for one specific action, or not be used to aid action. Memory can be seen as serving action, but our memory systems are flexible, allowing us to cope with the demands and restrictions of particular situations.

This thesis investigates source memory for performed and observed actions in recall and recognition tasks. The motor simulation account predicts that motor activation during action observation results in source misattributions of observed actions as self-performed. Alternatively, source judgements at test may be based on the evaluation of source features (source monitoring framework) or memory strength (relative strength account). Experiments 1, 2 and 3 in Chapter 2 test if the motor simulation account explains false memories of self-performance after observation. Interfering with participants’ ability to encode the motor trace during observation does not reduce participants’ propensity to falsely recall observed actions as performed, but increases it. Experiment 4 in Chapter 3 manipulates motor and visual interference at retrieval. Participants’ false recognition of observed actions as performed and performed actions as observed is not significantly affected by motor or visual interference. Experiments 5, 6 and 7 in Chapter 4 test if participants are better able to discriminate performed and observed actions if they generate the idea for the action they perform themselves. Participants’ source discrimination in a recall task improves if they generate the ideas for self-performed actions (Experiment 5 and 6), only if they do not also generate ideas for actions they observe (Experiment 7). Experiment 8 in Chapter 5 manipulates participants’ visual perspective of actions they observe. There is no evidence for a significant effect of visual perspective during observation on subsequent false memories of self-performance in a recognition paradigm. In my thesis I find no substantial support for a motor simulation account. While the results are broadly compatible with the source monitoring framework, model-based analyses show that participants’ performance may be based on items’ overall strength, in line with the relative strength account, rather than evaluation of source features.

<p>Verbal information has predominantly been the to-be-remembered materials in human memory research for more than a century. In recent years some interesting deviations from the established rules of verbal memory have been observed in subjects who have been asked to motorically self-perform (enact) action sentences at the encoding phase of the memory task, instead of only hearing or reading them as in a traditional verbal task (VT). Marked enhancements in recall were also consistently demonstrated in such studies and the effect was named the subject-performed task (SPT) effect. Presently, the body of SPT research is large but little agreement has been reached regarding the mechanism at work in producing the SPT phenomenon. The present thesis addresses two major issues in SPT research. The enhancement of associative information and the significance of the motor component are evaluated. In Study A, the SPT effect was studied in two cued-recall tasks that relied on item-specific association and relational association, respectively. The results showed that SPT encoding interacts with item-specific associative cues at recall to produce a larger SPT effect as compared to free recall. This supports the notion that part of the SPT effect is due to enhanced item-specific association. In Study B, the associative effect in SPT was studied amongst age cohorts comprised of subjects between 40 and 85 years old. Normal age-related decline in episodic memory has elsewhere been suggested to be caused mainly by associative deficits connected with ageing. The results of Study B indicate that the item-specific associative effect in SPT was more age sensitive than recall of VT and the relational associative effect in SPT. In Study C, the question over whether the SPT effect is dependent on motor modality or not was addressed. Self-produced sign language encoding was argued to be qualitatively the same as self-produced oral/verbal encoding, with the motor modality component being the only exception. It was also argued that the motor modality component was the main similarity to performing SPT. Since the signing subjects performed at the same level as the SPT condition at recall, and better than the control conditions (e.g., VT), the conclusion was made that motor activation per se can contribute to memory enhancement in SPT. Whether SPT encoding results in qualitatively different memory traces is discussed as well as the effect of SPT on other types of associative information. The results are also briefly related to other controversies in SPT research. It is concluded, finally, that enactment produces differential effects on different types of associations. The association between verb and noun is clearly enhanced by SPT encoding. Moreover, it is concluded that overt motor activation is necessary for obtaining a full SPT effect. To explore these interactions further and to build upon these conclusions, an increased focus on motor processes and their relation to verbal processes is called for in future cognitive research.</p>

Verbal information has predominantly been the to-be-remembered materials in human memory research for more than a century. In recent years some interesting deviations from the established rules of verbal memory have been observed in subjects who have been asked to motorically self-perform (enact) action sentences at the encoding phase of the memory task, instead of only hearing or reading them as in a traditional verbal task (VT). Marked enhancements in recall were also consistently demonstrated in such studies and the effect was named the subject-performed task (SPT) effect. Presently, the body of SPT research is large but little agreement has been reached regarding the mechanism at work in producing the SPT phenomenon. The present thesis addresses two major issues in SPT research. The enhancement of associative information and the significance of the motor component are evaluated. In Study A, the SPT effect was studied in two cued-recall tasks that relied on item-specific association and relational association, respectively. The results showed that SPT encoding interacts with item-specific associative cues at recall to produce a larger SPT effect as compared to free recall. This supports the notion that part of the SPT effect is due to enhanced item-specific association. In Study B, the associative effect in SPT was studied amongst age cohorts comprised of subjects between 40 and 85 years old. Normal age-related decline in episodic memory has elsewhere been suggested to be caused mainly by associative deficits connected with ageing. The results of Study B indicate that the item-specific associative effect in SPT was more age sensitive than recall of VT and the relational associative effect in SPT. In Study C, the question over whether the SPT effect is dependent on motor modality or not was addressed. Self-produced sign language encoding was argued to be qualitatively the same as self-produced oral/verbal encoding, with the motor modality component being the only exception. It was also argued that the motor modality component was the main similarity to performing SPT. Since the signing subjects performed at the same level as the SPT condition at recall, and better than the control conditions (e.g., VT), the conclusion was made that motor activation per se can contribute to memory enhancement in SPT. Whether SPT encoding results in qualitatively different memory traces is discussed as well as the effect of SPT on other types of associative information. The results are also briefly related to other controversies in SPT research. It is concluded, finally, that enactment produces differential effects on different types of associations. The association between verb and noun is clearly enhanced by SPT encoding. Moreover, it is concluded that overt motor activation is necessary for obtaining a full SPT effect. To explore these interactions further and to build upon these conclusions, an increased focus on motor processes and their relation to verbal processes is called for in future cognitive research.

xv, 140 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Although research on action processing indicates people segment action according to a partonomic goal hierarchy, no previous research has investigated whether memory for complex human action is actually organized in the mind with respect to goals. This dissertation explored the primary organization of action memory in adults and young children and explored the role of familiarity in young children's organization of action in memory. Borrowing from the text memory literature, a priming experiment was designed to investigate the degree to which action memory is organized with respect to goals versus veridical temporal structure. In all studies, participants viewed videos in which goals were carried out in an interleaved fashion, such that the execution of a goal was at times interrupted by action related to the other goal. In a first experiment with adults, the results indicated that adults reorganize action information in memory in order to emphasize goal structure relative to verbatim temporal structure. A second control experiment with adults clarified that the goal priming effect observed in the first experiment arose as a result of viewing the action scenario and was not simply due to the stimuli cuing pre-existing semantic memory. The results of a third experiment with adults revealed this process of goal organization is unlikely to be a by-product of goal-based linguistic encoding, but instead reflects encoding of human action itself. Young children's action memory was examined in a fourth experiment, and the role of children's familiarity with the action scenarios in action memory organization was also explored. Children did not display a significant tendency to organize action according to goal inferences (or temporal structure, either, for that matter). As well, children's prior familiarity with action did not modulate their memory organization to any significant degree. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest that adult memory for action emphasizes goal inferences but cannot speak to how or when this process in achieved developmentally. These findings have implications for contemporary theories of action processing, point to commonalities in the processing of language and human action, and open the door to future research into the development of action memory organization. / Committee in charge: Dare Baldwin, Chairperson, Psychology; Marjorie Taylor, Member, Psychology; Ulrich Mayr, Member, Psychology; Eric Pederson, Outside Member, Linguistics