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Knowledge of effort modulates visual memory biases for body postures.

Qiu Han1, Marco Gandolfo2, Jules van Dommelen2

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Visual memory for body postures is influenced by cognitive factors like effort. Our study shows that remembering an arm lift is biased downwards, especially when the action requires more effort.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Human motor control
  • Visual perception

Background:

  • Visual memory for body postures may be shaped by expectations and knowledge.
  • Previous research suggested a downward bias in visual memory for lifted arms, potentially due to effort prediction or normalization to frequent positions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the downward bias in visual memory for body postures is modulated by knowledge of effort.
  • To determine if attentive processing is necessary for this bias to emerge.
  • To explore the role of concurrent motor execution in modulating the bias.

Main Methods:

  • Three experiments were conducted involving participants viewing and recalling body postures.
  • Experiment 1 compared biases for effortful (standing, arm above shoulders) versus less effortful (lying, arm above chest) postures.
  • Experiment 2 examined the effect of viewing perspective (standing vs. lying) on the bias, with divided attention manipulated during encoding.

Main Results:

  • A stronger downward bias was observed for more effortful arm postures.
  • The downward bias was greater when viewing a standing actor compared to a lying actor, even with identical postures.
  • Dividing attention during memory encoding reduced the downward bias, indicating a role for attentive processing.
  • Concurrent execution of the observed posture did not further enhance the downward bias.

Conclusions:

  • The downward bias in visual memory for body postures is not solely automatic but is flexibly modulated by cognitive factors, specifically knowledge of effort.
  • Attentive processing is crucial for the development of this bias.
  • These findings highlight a high-level cognitive influence on the visual memory of body movements.