Preselection in short-term motor memory.

Abstract

Recent studies by B. Jones (see record have posited that accurate movements in short-term motor memory (STMM) are mediated by the S's ability to preset effector mechanisms and monitor their efferent output. 3 experiments were conducted with a total of 130 paid right-handed Ss to examine this hypothesis. Exp I involved comparisons between the reproduction of the end-location and the reproduction of the distance of a preselected movement. Results reveal that preselected location was superior to preselected distance, indicating that the efference attached to movement extent was not primary. Exp II examined whether location cues were primarily encoded independent of the movement presentation mode. Ss recalled target locations under preselected, constrained, and passive movement conditions. Recall in the preselected condition was superior to that in the constraind and passive conditions, suggesting that afferent are interpreted information per se was not totally responsible for recall accuracy. Exp III examined the processing requirements of preselected, constrained, and passive location information by filling the retention interval with interpolated processing activity. While preselected location was clearly superior, the 3 conditions were not differentially affected by processing activity. Findings are interpreted as contrary to Jones and point to the importance of preselection in short-term memory. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)