Testing Embodiment: No Necessary Role Of Motor System In Motor Working Memory

Rooted in the embodied cognition viewpoint, Barsalou’s (1999) Perceptual Symbols Systems theory holds that the main components of cognition are simulations run by activating primary sensorimotor brain areas. As such, it predicts the involvement of the motor system in higher order abilities like the comprehension of action sentences and the judgment of object manipulability. There are few studies that look at the involvement of the motor system in motor working memory. To test this, we presented arm and hand poses to participants, while they performed an interference tasks with either their hands or arms. Perceptual Symbols Systems predicts that the hand interference task will particularly disrupt the motor simulations and recall performance of the hand poses, less so of the arm poses, and vice versa for the arm interference task. This specific interference effect was not observed. This suggests that the motor system is not involved in motor working memory.