Translating words into actions in working memory: The role of spatial-motoric coding

Abstract

Research from a working memory perspective on the encoding and temporary maintenance of sequential instructions has established a consistent advantage for enacted over verbal recall. This is thought to reflect action planning for anticipated movements at the response phase. We describe five experiments investigating this, comparing verbal and enacted recall of a series of action-object pairings under different potentially disruptive concurrent task conditions, all requiring repetitive movements. A general advantage for enacted recall was observed across experiments, together with a tendency for concurrent action to impair sequence memory performance. The enacted recall advantage was reduced by concurrent action for both fine and gross concurrent movement with degree of disruption influenced by both the complexity and the familiarity of the movement. The results are discussed in terms of an output buffer store of limited capacity capable of holding motoric plans for anticipated action.

Actions versus Words: Exploring the contributions of working memory and motoric coding in children's instruction following using a dual‐task paradigm

“…• Findings indicate that successful disruption of enactment performance at recall may be conditional upon the type of motor processing involved at encoding. This conclusion echoes findings demonstrated in adults (see Jaroslawska et al, 2018;Li et al, 2022), but it is the first study to find evidence of differential motor processing effects in enactment recall children.…”

“…In turn, this suggests that task difficulty plays a key role in showing the detrimental effects of motor disruption in motor planning within a working memory context. Taken together, the findings from Jaroslawska et al ( 2018), Li et al (2022) and the current study suggest that reducing the enactment advantage at recall may be dependent on a number of factors associated with task complexity, materials used, and the general paradigm employed. Hence, further investigation is needed in order to examine how motor processing mechanisms interact with higher cognitive systems within a WM context.…”

“…Thus, the results are somewhat inconclusive, suggesting that the disruption of motor plans may be dependent on the type of motor concurrent task at encoding, with gross motor movements showing a more profound detrimental effect on enactment performance during the recall phase. Further research by Li et al (2022) extended these findings showing that familiarity and complexity of the motor concurrent task may also affect enactment performance, with more complex and unfamiliar movements during encoding, reducing the enactment advantage. Taken together, the results from these recent studies provide suggestive evidence for a motoric system within a WM context.…”

Actions vs. Words: Exploring the contributions of working memory and motoric coding in children’s instruction following using a dual-task paradigm

“…Thus, taken together these findings indicate that successful disruption of enactment recall performance in this type of task may require gross movements, both as the motor suppression as well as the main instructions. This explanation would partly also explain the findings by Li et al (2022), who also used fine motor movements in their instructions and showed mixed findings in terms of enactment recall performance after motor disruption at encoding. Indeed, this conclusion is in agreement with the wider literature; Shebani & Pulvermüller (2013) found that performing a motor movement can disrupt performance on a WM task inovlving action words if the actions in the primary and secondary task involve the same body part, compared to different body parts.…”

“…The authors concluded that enactment benefits rely on motor processes operated by what they named the motor store, a system they argued that may function as an additional WM subcomponent (Jaroslawska et al, 2018). Further research by Li et al (2022) extended these findings showing that familiarity and complexity of the motor distractor may also affect enactment performance, with more complex and unfamiliar movements during encoding, reducing the enactment advantage. Taken together, the findings from these recent studies show evidence for a motoric system that may facilitate immediate memory recall beyond the wellestablished WM processes.…”