Separate memory laws for recall of performed acts?

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Abstract
The present study was inspired by an experimental report by Cohen (1981). where recall of subject performed minitasks was demonstrated to give serial position curves without primacy effect. The question raised was whether this deviation implied the formulation of new memory laws. Eight new experiments were conducted. Two of them replicated Cohen's observations; one with concretely performed acts, and one with symbolically performed acts. A third experiment examined recall of proposed, nonperformed acts, with results similar to those found in the other minitask experiments. Four experiments studied the effect of visually imagining act performance, again with results which demonstrated the existence of interesting similarities between the different types of act recall. Several of the experiments explored the role of self‐involvement and task familiarity, and the last experiment was specially designed to test a task‐difficulty hypothesis. The results were discussed in terms of a representation‐system theory, a nonstrategic lack‐of‐rehearsal interpretation, and in terms of a general problem‐solving account. None of these theories were found, all observations taken together, to have been clearly supported or clearly disproved, and more evidence was therefore deemed necessary before new memory laws need to be postulated.

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