Pointing movements both impair and improve visuospatial working memory depending on serial position
Two experiments investigated the effects of pointing movements on the item and order recall of random, horizontal and vertical arrays consisting of 6 and 7 squares (Experiment 1) or 8 and 9 squares (Experiment 2). In the encoding phase, participants either viewed the items passively (passive-view condition) or pointed towards them (pointing condition). Then, after a brief interval, they were requested to recall the locations of the studied squares in the correct order of presentation.