School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2023 Nov;41(4):400-411. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12461. Epub 2023 Aug 31.
Previous research in adults has showed that physical performance (i.e., enactment) of instructions at recall leads to better memory compared to verbal recall and that this effect does not rely solely on Working Memory resources. The current study aimed to replicate this finding in children. A group of 32 children encoded simple instructions verbally while engaging in a series of distractor tasks (articulatory suppression, backwards counting and a motor suppression task). Participants recalled information verbally or physically through enactment. The findings showed that although distractors impaired performance compared to a control condition (no distractor task), the enactment advantage remained intact in all conditions. These findings show that children's memory is superior when they perform, rather than when they verbally repeat instructions and crucially it is suggested that this effect does not rely solely on Working Memory resources.
先前针对成年人的研究表明，与口头回忆相比，在回忆时执行指令（即表现）会导致更好的记忆，而且这种效果并非仅仅依赖于工作记忆资源。本研究旨在在儿童中复制这一发现。一组 32 名儿童通过口头表达来编码简单的指令，同时进行一系列分心任务（发音抑制、倒数和运动抑制任务）。参与者通过口头或身体表现来回忆信息。研究结果表明，尽管分心任务与控制条件（无分心任务）相比会影响表现，但在所有条件下，表现优势仍然存在。这些发现表明，当儿童执行而不是口头重复指令时，他们的记忆会更好，而且至关重要的是，这种效果并非仅仅依赖于工作记忆资源。
