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Updated: May 22, 2026
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Methods to Explore the Influence of Top-down Visual Processes on Motor Behavior
Published on: April 16, 2014
No role for motor affordances in visual working memory
1Department of Psychology T12-33, Erasmus University, Postbus 1738, 3061 DZ Rotterdam, the Netherlands. pecher@fsw.eur.nl
Summary
This study investigated if motor affordances aid working memory. Results showed motor interference did not impact memory for manipulable objects, suggesting motor affordances do not support visual working memory.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Perception
Background:
- Motor affordances, the potential actions an object affords, influence object recognition.
- Previous research suggests motor affordances are crucial for visual identification and categorization.
- The role of motor affordances in cognitive functions beyond perception, such as working memory, remains largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if motor affordances contribute to the maintenance of information in visual working memory.
- To investigate whether motor interference specifically disrupts working memory for objects with distinct motor affordances.
Main Methods:
- Five experiments were conducted using a working memory task involving photographs of objects.
- Participants viewed images of both manipulable and non-manipulable objects.
- Concurrent motor, verbal, or visual interference tasks were introduced to assess their impact on memory performance.
Main Results:
- General memory performance was impaired by all types of concurrent tasks (motor, verbal, visual).
- Crucially, there was no significant interaction between object manipulability and the type of interference.
- The degree of motor interference did not differ based on whether the object possessed motor affordances.
Conclusions:
- The findings provide no evidence that motor affordances support visual working memory.
- Motor affordances do not appear to play a special role in how we retain visual information in working memory.
- Future research could explore other cognitive domains or different types of affordances.
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