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Abstract:
Prior research has shown that performed actions are better
remembered than watched or imagined events, and all superior to
memory for action sentences. The question thus arises about the
extent to which the retrieval and/or content of action memories
differ from those of semantic memories. We examined this by
recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as subjects viewed
images of objects during one of two encoding tasks in Experiment 1
(Perform a common action or estimate object's Cost) and one of four
tasks in Experiment 2 (Perform, Watch, Imagine action or Cost).
Subjects made either Old/New item judgments or source judgments for
its encoding task. At test, ERPs to correct item judgments were
unaffected by encoding task. By contrast, there were large source
retrieval (i.e., encoding) effects in both experiments beginning
around 600 ms when source judgments were required. The greatest
differentiation among ERPs as a function of encoding tasks were at
posterior sites. Source judgments ERPs during all but the Cost task
showed a sensitivity to the hand with with the action had been
performed (determined by side of object presentation during study).
These results suggest (1) that encoding task details are retrieved
only when source judgments are required, (2) source retrieval
varies with source content, and (3) memories for actions contain
some information that is distinct from memory for semantic
information.
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