Ricerc@Sapienza

Previous studies have shown that, under specific conditions, arrays that have been pointed at encoding are recognized better than passively viewed ones. According to one interpretation, the superior recognition of pointed-to arrays can be explained by the motor inhibition of passively viewed arrays. The present study sought to determine whether a similar motor inhibition can be induced also when the participants observed a co-actor perform the pointing movements.

Several studies have demonstrated that the processing of visuospatial memory for locations in reaching space and in navigational space is supported by independent systems, and that the coding of visuospatial information depends on the modality of the presentation (i.e., sequential or simultaneous). However, these lines of evidence and the most common neuropsychological tests used by clinicians to investigate visuospatial memory have several limitations (e.g., they are unable to analyze all the subcomponents of this function and are not directly comparable).

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.