Win some, lose some: Hypermnesia for actions reflects increased item- specific processing

Abstract

Memory for simple action phrases (e.g., 'Break a match') improves when subjects perform the actions at study. The relative contribution of item- specific and relational processing to this enactment effect has been an issue of considerable debate. It was addressed in the present study by examining hypermnesia in a multiple-test free recall paradigm, based on the assumptions that item-specific processing increases the probability of intertest gains and relational processing protects against intertest forgetting (e.g., Burns, 1993; Klein, Loftus, Kihlstrom, and Aseron, 1989). It was found that the enactment condition produced both significantly more gains and more losses than did the nonenactment condition, resulting in a net gain (hypermnesia) for the enactment condition. The results suggest that enactment promotes item-specific processing at the expense of relational processing.