title: Generalizing everyday memory: signs and handedness.
abstract: Memory for frequently encountered road signs was investigated. In Experiment 1, the average level of recall of road sign features was found to be only 47%. In Experiment 2, more left-handed than right-handed people recalled that a walking figure faces right on one sign, whereas more right-handed than left-handed people recalled that a digging figure faces left on another sign. Performance thus reflected not a difference in level of mnemonic ability between left-handed and right-handed groups but instead the compatibility between group and task. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to draw any figure walking and any figure digging, with a pattern of results similar to that of Experiment 2. It is suggested that handedness effects in recall are mediated by motor imagery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, England. maryanne.martin@psy.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: G V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011597:Psychomotor Performance