Do you remember what you imagined you would do in that place? The motor encoding cue-failure effect in sighted and blind people

Abstract

Examined why the recall of performed actions often fails to profit from provision of retrieval context in 3 experiments. Data from Exp 1, with 24 young adults (aged 18–30 yrs) confirm the cue-failure effect and extend the generality of the finding to everyday cue contexts (where the cues are represented by images of the locations associated to the actions), which intuitively should be of general retrieval help. Exp 2, with 16 blind Ss and 16 sighted Ss (aged 15–60 yrs), shows that the cue-failure effect is also present, even to a greater extent, in congenitally totally blind people. Exp 3, with 24 Ss (aged 18–21 yrs) suggests how the cue-failure effect may be defeated by means of simultaneous motor and nonmotor encoding. Results are discussed in terms of strategic and nonstrategic conceptions of action memory and of the independence of motor and visuospatial codes. This independence appears maintained also in the blind