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Mentally retarded and nonretarded adults' memory for spatial location
American Journal of Mental Deficiency
|January 1, 1987
Summary
Spatial memory is automatic for adults, regardless of intention. This automatic spatial memory is a strength for individuals with intellectual disabilities, differing from their object recall abilities.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- The automaticity of memory encoding is a key concept in cognitive psychology.
- Hasher and Zacks (1979) proposed criteria for automatic memory processes.
- Previous research has explored automaticity in various memory domains.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the claim that memory for spatial location is automatic.
- To investigate the effect of intentional versus incidental encoding on spatial memory.
- To compare spatial memory performance between adults with and without intellectual disabilities.
Main Methods:
- Adult participants (mentally retarded and nonretarded) studied objects on a matrix.
- Two conditions were used: intentional encoding and incidental encoding of spatial locations.
- Recall of both objects and their spatial locations was assessed.
Main Results:
- Memory for spatial location was significantly above chance in both intentional and incidental conditions.
- Intentional encoding did not improve spatial location recall compared to incidental encoding.
- While participants differed in object recall, spatial location recall was similar between groups.
Conclusions:
- Findings support the automaticity of spatial location encoding, aligning with Hasher and Zacks' criteria.
- Automatic encoding of spatial information appears to be a relative strength for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
- This suggests that cognitive interventions could leverage automatic spatial memory processes.
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