Department of Psychology, Università degli studi di Torino, Turin, Italy.
Centro di Logica, Linguaggio, e Cognizione, Università degli studi di Torino, Turin, Italy.
Memory. 2023 May;31(5):652-664. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2023.2185933. Epub 2023 Mar 6.
The embodied approach states that memory traces are retrieved, at least in part, through a sensorimotor simulation of the original events, i.e., during retrieval we use our body and its sensorimotor pathways to simulate what happened during encoding. Thus, body manipulations that are incongruent with the motor elements involved at encoding should modulate memory performance. To test this hypothesis, we devised two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants had to observe (observation task) or observe and also perform an action on (enactment task) a series of objects. At recognition, they recognised the enacted objects faster and more accurately than the observed ones. Crucially, in Experiment 2, we manipulated body posture during recognition: one group was asked to hold their hands/arms in front of them (non-interfering group), and the other group was asked to block their hands/arms behind their back (interfering group). The results on reaction times, but not those on accuracy, showed a critical interaction: while the noninterfering group recognised enacted objects faster than observed objects, this advantage disappeared for the interfering group. This suggests that adopting a posture inconsistent with action at encoding could influence the time needed to correctly recognise the objects, but not the accuracy of the recognition.
具身认知理论认为，记忆痕迹至少部分是通过对原始事件的感觉运动模拟来检索的，也就是说，在检索过程中，我们利用身体及其感觉运动通路来模拟编码过程中发生的事情。因此，与编码时涉及的运动元素不一致的身体动作应该会调节记忆表现。为了验证这一假设，我们设计了两个实验。在实验 1 中，参与者必须观察（观察任务）或观察并对一系列物体进行操作（执行任务）。在识别阶段，他们对执行过的物体的识别速度更快，准确性更高。至关重要的是，在实验 2 中，我们在识别过程中操纵身体姿势：一组被要求将手/手臂放在身前（非干扰组），另一组被要求将手/手臂放在背后（干扰组）。反应时间的结果，但不是准确性的结果，显示出关键的相互作用：非干扰组对执行过的物体的识别速度快于观察过的物体，而干扰组的这种优势消失了。这表明，采用与编码时的动作不一致的姿势可能会影响正确识别物体所需的时间，但不会影响识别的准确性。
