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Are my keys under the couch, or in my car? Enactment during learning benefits retrieval of object locations in forced-choice recognition memory.

Poster Session F - Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Suesan MacRae¹ (), Ken McRae², Stefan Köhler³; ¹University of Western Ontario

Research on the enactment effect suggests that performing an action during learning leads to better memory than solely listening to words. Previously, using pictures, we found an enactment boost when learning associations between objects and locations. Furthermore, participants remembered manipulable stimuli (tools) more accurately than nonmanipulable stimuli (animals). In the current research, we investigate whether enactment effects persist even when the retrieval task does not involve movements similar to those during learning. Forty participants completed two learning phases: Active, in which they used the mouse to place items in their assigned locations on a circle, and Passive, in which they watched as the items moved to their assigned locations. In both conditions, participants memorized the object's identity and its location. At test, participants saw two location targets. One target matched the learning phase location whereas the other was a lure positioned 40 degrees away. Participants chose which target was the correct location. After active learning, participants were more likely to select the correct location, made their choices faster, and reported higher confidence. Participants were more likely to select correct locations, and report higher confidence, for tools than for animals. Results suggest that motor information (through enactment and stimulus differences) improves memory for object-location associations even if the action is not reinstated during test. We theorize that the motor information retrieved through simulation can support these learning benefits even without physical reactivation (movement). Future work with EEG will assess whether motor simulation is the mechanism by which the enactment effect persists.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic