Cross-Modal Facilitation of Episodic Memory by Sequential Action Execution.

ABSTRACT: Throughout our lives, the actions we produce are often highly familiar and repetitive (e.g., commuting to work). However, layered upon these routine actions are novel, episodic experiences. Substantial research has shown that prior knowledge can facilitate learning of conceptually related new information. But despite the central role our behavior plays in real-world experience, it remains unclear how engagement in a familiar sequence of actions influences memory for unrelated, nonmotor information coincident with those actions. To investigate this, we had healthy young adults encode novel items while simultaneously following a sequence of actions (key presses) that was either predictable and well-learned or random. Across three experiments (N = 80 each), we found that temporal order

SUBMITTER: Gasser C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10331092 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature