DECOMPOSING THE ENCODING OF ACTION EVENTS - A DUAL CONCEPTION

Two experiments are reported in which we tested the hypothesis that encoding of verbal features of subject‐performed tasks or SPTs (e.g., bounce the ball, lift the spoon) is attention‐demanding and effortful, whereas physical features of this memory task (e.g., color, weight) are acquired with little effort, and without deliberate encoding strategies. In Experiment 1, subjects were asked to perform a series of SPTs and were examined on recall of verbal instructions and colors of objects involved under conditions of focused or divided attention. In Experiment 2, performance of a series of SPTs was followed by recall of verbal instructions and recall of weights of objects involved. Results of both experiments indicated that recall of the verbal task component was negatively affected by requirements of dual‐task performance, whereas recall of both physical task features was equally good in both encoding conditions. The obtained pattern of outcome is interpreted as supportive of the dual conception hypothesis of the nature of the encoding of action events. Copyright © 1991, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved