Memory for Actions

by Engelkamp, Johannes

• ISBN13: 9780863777653
• ISBN10: 0863777651
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-11-01
• Publisher: Psychology Pr

Summary

Psychological experiments demonstrate that we remember self-performed actions better & more easily than actions performed by others, which we only perceived, or actions which were only reported to us. In everyday life, we remember whether or not we have already performed certain actions. Questions such as "Did you go the gas station?", "Did you pay the waiter?", "Have you mailed the letter?" as a rule can be answered without difficulty. It would be embarrassing if we could not remember whether or not we had done something. Imagine forgetting that you had just put gas in the car, & immediately driving into the next gas station to fill up again, or forgetting that you had paid the waiter in a restaurant, & trying to pay again. It is the aim of this book to explain why we remember our own actions so well. In doing so, it offers a comprehensive survey of research & theory in this field of memory psychology. The author describes the development of research in the light of recent theory. The broader objective of the book is to contribute to a theory of episodic memory. Although the study of memory for actions was derived from general assumptions about episodic memory, the studies quickly revealed new & surprising memory phenomena. Specific laws of memory for self-performed actions are discussed, which are entirely distinct from the laws of verbal learning. Through its discussion of these new memory phenomena, Memory for Actions makes an important contribution to the development of a general theory of episodic memory.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(8)
Aims and organisation of the book	1	(2)
Preview of the book's chapters	3	(6)
Explanations for episodic memory	9	(8)
Item-specific versus relational processes	9	(3)
Automatic versus controlled processes	12	(1)
Various codes	13	(2)
Summary	15	(2)
Early findings and explanations for the retention of self-performed tasks	17	(18)
Enactment as strategy-free encoding	18	(4)
Enactment of actions as rich, multimodal encoding	22	(3)
Enactment as motor encoding	25	(6)
Enactment as item-specific encoding	31	(4)
Theoretical integration I: Actions as described by the multimodal theory	35	(16)
The multimodal memory theory	35	(8)
Explanations of findings on the enactment effect and new predictions based on the multimodal memory theory	43	(8)
Empirical inconsistencies and theoretical controversies	51	(42)
Controversies concerning modality-specific aspects	51	(21)
Controversies concerning item-specific and relational encoding	72	(16)
Controversies on automatic and controlled encoding	88	(5)
Theoretical integration II: Expansion and differentiation of the multimodal theory	93	(8)
Effects of multimodal encoding	93	(2)
Effects of item-specific and relational encoding	95	(1)
Effects of automatic and controlled encoding	96	(5)
Recent studies on encoding and retrieval	101	(26)
Recent findings on encoding	101	(8)
Differentiations in retrieval processes	109	(11)
Retention in the interplay of encoding and retrieval	120	(7)
Theoretical integration III: Inclusion of retrieval processes	127	(6)
Effects of encoding	127	(1)
Effects of retrieval	128	(5)
Memory for actions and its implications for theories on episodic memory	133	(6)
Systems	133	(2)
Encoding processes	135	(2)
Retrieval processes	137	(2)
Widening the perspective	139	(8)
Failures of remembering self-performed actions	140	(3)
Retrospective versus prospective memory of actions	143	(4)
References	147	(12)
Author index	159	(4)
Subject index	163