No abstract

It is now well established that motor fluency affects cognitive processes, including memory. In two experiments participants learned a list of words and then performed a recognition task. The original feature of our procedure is that before judging the words they had to perform a fluent gesture (i.e., typing a letter dyad). The dyads comprised letters located on either the right or left side of the keyboard. Participants typed dyads with their right or left index finger; the required movement was either very small (dyad composed of adjacent letters, Experiment 1) or slightly larger (dyad composed of letters separated by one key, experiment 2). The results show that when the gesture was performed in the ipsilateral space the probability of recognizing a word increased (to a lesser extent it is the same with the dominant hand, experiment 2). Moreover, a binary regression logistic highlighted that the probability of recognizing a word was proportional to the speed by which the gesture was performed. These results are discussed in terms of a feeling of familiarity emerging from motor discrepancy.Keywords Memory . Fluency . Discrepancy . GestureThe way people conceive the world is intrinsically dependent on body specificity and on the way they interact with their environment (Casasanto, 2009). The aim of this study was to extend previous findings (i.e., typing activity) by showing that recognition judgment could be influenced by the hand one uses and the space in which a response is given.Manual dominance is one of the main body specificities. The results observed in studies of typing activity showed that skilled typists on the QWERTY keyboard preferred letters typed with the right hand to those typed with the left hand. But when participants were asked to perform the preference task while holding a motor plan in memory (i.e., dual task), the skilled typists' preference was attenuated when the motor plan involved the same finger used to type the presented dyads (see Beilock & Holt, 2007). Jasmin and Casasanto (2012) confirmed that preference judgments are influenced by motor fluency caused by digit-specific typing simulation (the so-called QWERTY effect). Yang, Gallo, and Beilock (2009) showed that the fluency with which participants type the letter dyads to be recognized influences their recognition judgment. Participants found it easier to remember letter dyads typed with two different fingers than those typed with one finger. Indeed, typing a letter dyad with two different fingers is easier than typing a letter dyad with one finger.If manual dominance is one of the main body specificities, laterality is another one: an individual's most fluent actions are those executed with the dominant hand on the dominant side (i.e., for a right-hander, movements of the right hand on the right side). Classic studies from aim-pointing tasks have already demonstrated that ipsilateral actions are carried out more easily and faster than contralateral actions for both the dominant and the non-dominant hand (Fisk & Goodale, ...

Background: The time adults spend sitting in front of screens is a health risk factor. In contrast, walking and cycling to and from work, also known as active commuting, could promote physical activity and improve population health. Objective: This study investigated automatic properties role in explaining active commuting and screen-based sedentary behaviours. The stable, daily conditions for carrying out active commuting and screen-based sedentary behaviour are most likely to develop automatic properties. These characteristics mean performing behaviours via external cues (i.e. lack of intentionality), with an unpleasant emotional experience of not carrying out a set routine (i.e. lack of controllability), and without paying much attention (i.e. efficiency). Method: This article describes findings of a prospective and correlational study in which 128 people participated. First, participants responded to questions assessed using the Generic Multifaceted Automaticity Scale (GMAS), which measured the automatic properties of screen-based sedentary behaviour and active commuting. The following week, both behaviours were assessed by daily logs to document active commuting and screen-based sedentary behaviour events, and by an accelerometer, worn for seven days, as an objective criterion. Confirmatory factor analyses, bivariate correlations, and multiple linear regressions were computed for the associations between the GMAS scores and objective criterion measures of screen-based sedentary behaviours and active commuting. Results: Automaticity facets displayed different relationships with screen-based sedentary behaviours and active commutingpeople with higher lack of intentionality and lack of controllability for active commuting present higher levels of moderate physical activity. In contrast, the lack of controllability of screen-based sedentary behaviours was a significant predictor of sedentary screen time. Conclusions: The multidimensional approach to automaticity could be useful in determining more precisely the features that need to be addressed to promote the adoption of active commuting and limit the time spent sitting in front of screens.

The present study aimed to address the following question: does the discrepancy between an expected word and its readability enhances or impair its memorability? We used an adaptation of the sentence stem paradigm (Whittlesea in J Exp Psycol 19:1235–1253, 1993) and manipulated the perceptual clarity of the words by introducing some Gaussian noise (Reber in Psycol Sci 9:45–48, 1998). The target words were semantically predictable or otherwise (conceptual fluency) or were easy or difficult to read (perceptual fluency). The first experiment was conducted to ensure that the two manipulated factors had an impact on the readability of the words. In particular, results showed that when the words were written against a noisy background their predictability enhanced the judgement of readability. The second experiment aimed to test the hypothesis that recognition would be influenced by the discrepancy between conceptual and perceptual fluency. The results showed that with a noisy background, the predictability of the target words had an impact on recognition judgement; with a clear background, the effect on the recognition judgement was caused by the non-predictability of the target words. Conversely, confidence in judgement increased when the two factors went in the same direction, that is, predictability with clarity and non-predictability with low clarity. The results showed that (a) depending on the task, the effects of conceptual and perceptual fluency did not go in the same direction; (b) the kinds of fluency (conceptual and perceptual) were not independent; and (c) recognition judgements were affected by the gap between conceptual and perceptual fluency.