Do actions speak louder than words? Examining children’s ability to follow instructions

Abstract

The ability to encode, retain, and implement instructions within working memory is central to many behaviours, including classroom activities which underpin learning. The three experiments presented here explored how action—planned, enacted, and observed—impacted 6- to 10-year-old’s ability to follow instructions. Experiment 1 (N = 81) found enacted recall was superior to verbal recall, but self-enactment at encoding had a negative effect on enacted recall and verbal recall. In contrast, observation of other-enactment (demonstration) at encoding facilitated both types of recall (Experiment 2a: N = 81). Further, reducing task demands through a reduced set of possible actions (Experiment 2b; N = 64) led to a positive effect of self-enactment at encoding for later recall (both verbal and enacted). Expecting to enact at recall may lead to the creation of an imaginal spatial-motoric plan at encoding that boosts later recall. However, children’s ability to use the additional spatial-motoric codes generated via self-enactment at encoding depends on the demands the task places on central executive resources. Demonstration at encoding appears to reduce executive demands and enable use of these additional forms of coding.

Exploring the effects of demonstration and enactment in facilitating recall of instructions in working memory

“…This observation of positive encoding-enactment effects, which are particularly prevalent with verbal (rather than enacted) recall, has also been observed in children (Jaroslawska, Gathercole, Allen, & Holmes, 2016;Waterman et al, 2017, Experiment 3). One suggested mechanism for this finding is that selfenactment at encoding encourages non-strategic, automatic engagement with additional visuo-spatial and motoric codes that facilitate verbal recall (Waterman et al, 2017). This is consistent with the reduced influence of self-enactment at encoding on enacted recall: where participants are already engaging with the additional forms of visuospatial-motoric coding because they are planning for physical performance of the instructions later (Allen & Waterman, 2015;Jaroslawska, Gathercole, & Holmes, 2018).…”

“…Demonstration has also recently been explored in the context of working memory. Waterman et al (2017) found that having the experimenter provide visual demonstration alongside verbal presentation benefited children's memory for instructions (see also Wojcik, Allen, Brown, & Souchay, 2011) to an equivalent extent for verbal and enacted recall. Yang, Allen, Yu, and Chan (2016b) extended this to the use of video demonstration (see also Yang, Jia, Zheng, Allen, & Ye, 2018) finding that this facilitated adults' recall performance, compared to auditory presentation of verbal instruction sequences.…”

“…It plays a central role in learning new skills, is important for a multitude of daily activities such as cooking and technology use, and has been identified as a key activity underpinning learning within the classroom (Gathercole, Durling, Evans, Jeffcock, & Stone, 2007;Gathercole, Pickering, Knight, & Stegmann, 2003). The ability to remember and implement instructions is often thought to rely on the storage and processing of information in working memory (Gathercole et al, 2007;Waterman et al, 2017;Yang, Allen, & Gathercole, 2016a); a limited capacity system for the temporary maintenance and processing of information being used in ongoing cognition and action (Baddeley, 2012;Cowan, 2012;Logie, 2011). Thus, working memory tasks typically require immediate recall or recognition of highly constrained sets of information, in line with the generally accepted limited capacity (around four items) and retention duration (approximately a few seconds, using filled delays) of the working memory system (see Cowan, 2010;Oberauer et al, 2018, for reviews).…”

Cognitive Offloading: Structuring the Environment to Improve Children's Working Memory Task Performance

“…The following tasks have been used extensively in the literature as measures of simple and complex working memory (e.g., Berry et al, 2018;Gathercole, Pickering, Ambridge, & Wearing, 2004;Waterman et al, 2017).…”

Forward and backward recall of serial actions: Exploring the temporal dynamics of working memory for instruction

“…During retrieval, recall by physical action substantially improves recall accuracy relative to spoken repetition (Allen & Waterman, 2015;Gathercole et al, 2008;Jaroslawska, Gathercole, Allen, et al, 2016a;Koriat, Ben-Zur, & Nussbaum, 1990;Yang et al, 2014). These action-based effects have been found in FI studies with healthy populations (Allen & Waterman, 2015;Gathercole et al, 2008;Waterman et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2016) and clinical groups with lower working memory capacity (Charlesworth, Allen, Morson, Burn, & Souchay, 2014;Lui et al, 2017;Wojcik et al, 2011;Yang, Allen, Holmes, & Chan, 2017). Such effects indicate a superiority of action/visual-motor-based representations relative to verbalonly storage.…”