Enactment and Embodiment Impact the Recall of Object-Location Associations

The role of self-generated movement in memory retrieval has been demonstrated in enactment paradigms. However, in the context of object-location memory, the impact of action during learning has not yet been investigated, despite the ecological relevance of such behaviors. In the current project, we present new evidence that actively placing an object in a target location during learning leads to more precise, and faster, subsequent recall of the object-location associations than simply observing this placement. We further demonstrate differences in object- location memory depending on the category of stimuli that participants are engaging with by showing that images of objects with high manipulability are placed more precisely, more quickly, and more directly (mouse-tracking) than images of objects with low manipulability. We suggest that these latter differences are due to the motor information implicitly activated during processing of high manipulability items, and reflect the embodied nature of concepts. Although both enactment and manipulability impacted object-location recall, they did not interact. This research extends findings on enactment to associative encoding processes, and informs our understanding of the relationship between enactment and embodiment in human memory.