Levels of Processing and the Coding of Position Cues in Motor Short-Term Memory

Abstract

The present study investigated the appropriateness of the levels-of-processing framework of memory for explaining retention of information in motor short-term memory. Subjects were given labels descriptive of the positions to be remembered by the experimenter (EL), were given no labels (NL), or provided their own labels (SL). A control group (CONT) was required to count backwards during the presentation of the criterion positions. The inclusion of a 30-sec filled retention interval as well as 0-sec and 30-sec unfilled retention intervals tested a prediction by Craik and Lockhart (1972), when attention is diverted from an item, information will be lost at a rate appropriate to its level of processing - that is, slower rates for deeper levels. Groups EL and SL had greater accuracy at recall for all three retention intervals than groups CONT and NL. In addition, there was no significant increase in error between 30-sec unfilled and 30-sec filled intervals for groups EL and SL, while there was a significant increase in error for groups CONT and NL. The data were interpreted in terms of Craik and Lockhart's (1972) levels-of-processing approach to memory.

Decreasing Landing Forces in Children: The Effect of Instructions

“…The data were analyzed using a 2-factor MANOVAbased repeated-measures design with peak vertical GRF (expressed as a multiple of BW for each subject) as the dependent measure. The factors were treatment condition (instruction versus control) and sessions (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). It is common practice to use MANOVA rather than ANOVA procedures in repeated-measure designs because the former reduces the problem associated with violations of sphericity.…”

“…In addition, 7-year-old children are capable of using verbal rehearsal to analyze and label position cues in movement. 5,7 This evidence, taken together, suggests that children as young as 7 years of age should be ready to use verbal instruction to reduce GRFs during landing from a jumping task.…”

Cognitive Processes and Learner Strategies in the Acquisition of Motor Skills

“…Different encoding instructions, which can be considered as similar to instructions in the use of various strategies, have led to differences in memory performance based on the meaningfulness of the processing. An essentially identical finding has been reported when a motor task was used as the skill to be learned (Ho & Shea, 1978;Shea, 1977 A third question pertains to the underlying processes associated with strategy usage and skill learning.…”

“…An Brown, 1974) and motor skills (Hagenbeck, 1978;Ho & Shea, 1978;Shea, 1977), but the generalizability (transfer) of the strategies to other situational contexts has not been thoroughly investigated.…”

Developmental Differences in Children’s Labeling of Movement

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