Development of Automatic and Effortful Processes in memory for Spatial Location of Movement

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to determine if spatial location of movement was automatically encoded in memory. In Experiment 1, two of Hasher and Zacks' (1979) automaticity criteria (age and intention) were examined. Adults (age = 20 years) and 7- and 11-year-old children (n at each age = 60) moved to four locations on a 20 x 20 m field. Within age, subjects were randomly assigned to three conditions, one representing intentional learning and two representing levels of incidental learning. Half of the subjects had additional spatial-location cues. In Experiment 2, age and practice criteria were examined relative to their influence on automaticity of spatial-location recall. Adults (age = 20 years) and 7- and 11-year-old children (n at each age = 30) had one, two, or three practice trials using the same field layout as in Experiment 1. Results of the two experiments did not support Hasher and Zacks' (1979) hypothesis, but indicated that spatial location of movement was not automatically encoded in memory because increased age, intention, spatial cues, and more practice all resulted in better task performance.