Retention characteristics of motor short-term memory cues.

The retention characteristics of several cues thought to underlie movement reproduction ability were examined and the results were discussed in terms of two models of motor short-term memory (Laabs, 1973; Pepper & Herman, 1970). Trace decay was indexed by constant error and not variable error. It appeared that the movement cues studied all had access to the central processing capacity in that forgetting did not occur until rehearsal was blocked by the introduction of a secondary task. However, there was some evidence to indicate that different cues are centrally represented in varying degrees of exactness. In this respect reliance on active movement cues and location cues produced better reproduction than passive movement and distance cues, respectively. The existence of an adaptation level established from the range of movement utilized was supported, and short movements were more dependent on central processing capacity than were long movements.