Motor expertise interacts with physical enactment to enhance action memory.

Previous research on action memory showed the advantage for performing the action in memorising the action phrases. We tested if performing the action would help participants with or without motor expertise to memorise the novel action poses. Thirty novel action poses performed by an expert were photographed to constitute memory and interference stimuli. Eighty college students observed to remember the randomly displayed stimuli; however, half were asked to perform the displayed stimuli. Both free-recall and recognition tests were administered immediately and 24 h after the memory task. The results showed that acting was better than observing for memorising the novel action poses, which not only promoted the absolute retention but also alleviated the retention loss caused by interference. Motor expertise enhanced the overall memory performance by promoting a deeper motor encoding. Based on our results, novices should act with (rather than just observe) the model to learn novel motor skills.