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Previous research yielded inconsistent results regarding the memory organization of self-performed actions. The authors propose that task performance changes the very basis of memory organization. Enactment during study and test (Experiment 1) yielded stronger enactive clustering (based on motor-movement similarities), whereas verbal encoding yielded stronger conceptual clustering (based on semantic-episodic similarities). Enactment enhanced memory quantity and memory accuracy. Both measures increased with enactive clustering under self-performance instructions but with conceptual clustering under verbal instructions. Enactment only during study (Experiment 2) or only during testing (Experiment 3) also enhanced enactive clustering. It is proposed that different conditions affect the relative salience of different types of memory organization and their relative contribution to recall.

In order to study the organization of memory for self-performed actions, 80 participants were presented with 20 action phrases for ten consecutive study-test cycles. Enactment was manipulated both in the input phase and in the output phase by having participants say or enact the phrases during encoding and/or during testing. Enactment at input or output generally enhanced both the quantity and the accuracy of recall and also improved output monitoring. More important, subjective organization, as indexed by the tendency to recall the same two phrases successively across repeated recall tests, was significant for all conditions, even on the first pair of trials, and increased systematically with repeated study-test cycles. Enactment neither impaired nor enhanced the amount of organization, and in all conditions a positive correlation was obtained between recall and subjective organization. Some commonalities in the nature of memory organization were found across all conditions. The results suggest that enactment may lead to more differentiated memory traces, resulting in more accurate recall. Although subjective organization was clearly observed when enactment was involved, its contribution to the enhancement of recall deserves further examination.

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Human functioning is influenced by the affective state. The literature contains several references to the possibility that valence and arousal have separable influences on attention. There are several methods of inducing affective state but the most popular are by music and video clips. The latter are more vivid and stimulate several sensory systems, leading to the hypothesis that a stronger effect will result when using video clips for the induction of affective state. Both methods have been used in many studies in the past but their different contributions have never really been tested. Thus the aim of the present study is to systematically establish or refute the assumption that video clips are the stronger tool for affect induction. In order to test this hypothesis a study was conducted in which 194 subjects participated in four groups. Positive and negative affect conditions were induced by validated music and video clips. The results established the validity of the hypothesis. The results should be applied in cognitive research testing the relations between induced affect and cognitive abilities in order to determine whether the effect is replicated when the cognitive abilities are tested.