Preselection and response biasing in short-term motor memory

Two experiments were performed comparing preselected (subject defined) and constrained (experimenter defined) movements. In the first experiment, subjects made reproduction responses immediately or under unfilled and filled 15-sec retention intervals. Results indicated that recall of preselected movements was clearly superior until the interpolation of information processing activity. In addition, preselected movements demonstrated no forgetting over a 15-sec retention interval while constrained movements evidenced spontaneous memory lass, suggesting that preselected movements possess a stronger representation in memory. The second experiment examined this interpretation in a response biasing paradigm. Subjects made criterion responses under preselected or constrained conditions, while the interpolated movement was always in the constrained mode and ± 40 deg from the criterion. The subjects' task was to attend to both movements and recall each when instructed. While preselected recall was clearly superior' to constrained recall, response biasing was clearly evident in both. The failure to find differential biasing effects was discussed in terms of the relative trace strength hypothesis (Stelmach & Welsh, 1972).