AUTHOR=Zhang Xinyuan , Zuber Sascha 

TITLE=The Effects of Language and Semantic Repetition on the Enactment Effect of Action Memory

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00515

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00515

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Humans exhibit enhanced memory performance when information is encoded by physically performing it, as opposed to passively reading or listening to the phrases; an effect referred to as “enactment effect”. The present study explored the effects of language form (native vs. non-native) and semantic level (repeated vs. non-repeated) on enactment effect in action memory. Forty-eight subjects were required to learn action phrases either by enacting or by reading the items. The results showed i) a better memory performance for enacted phrases ii) enhanced memory performance for action phrases in the non-native language learning, and iii) a memory benefit due to semantic level (deep processing) for non-native language but under passive encoding. The findings are discussed within the light of the multimodal theory.