Memory for spatial and temporal information as a function of extended practice

The effects of extended practice on spatial and temporal memory was examined to assess whether automaticity occurred because of resource limitations as Hasher and Zacks proposed or as a result of a memory phenomenon as explained by Logan's instance theory. Since previous memory studies have typically employed stimuli that subjects may have been familiar with, the current experiment attempted to control for stimulus equivalence and experience. For this purpose, twelve male and twelve female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to three blocks of Washam's DOT Matrices test (DMT) with an equal member of males and females in each block. Similar to the procedures used by Logan and Klapp, the subjects were required to perform the spatial location recognition and temporal order tasks for nine sessions. Each session consisted of 8 trials of the spatial location recognition task and 1 trial of the temporal order task. Prior to beginning the experiment (Session 1 only), half of the subjects (2 males and 2 females) in each DMT block were given complete instructions on how to perform the spatial location recognition and temporal order tasks. The remaining subjects in each DMT block were given instructions on how to perform the temporal order task only after completion of the spatial location recognition task in order to control for instructional effects. Each stimulus page of the DMT block was presented consecutively one at a time for 60 seconds each. The stimulus page was removed and a probe-order page was presented with a recognition page containing 12 blank matrices. The subjects were required to write the corresponding letter of each dot pattern in its correct position in the blank matrices. The subjects were then given all eight stimulus pages arranged in random order and required to rearrange the stimulus pages in their original order for the temporal order task. A stopwatch was used to measure response times on all trials.; Several aspects of these data provided evidence of the development of automaticity in the spatial location recognition and temporal order tasks. The present findings clearly supported Logan's instance theory of automatization that practice will indeed increase memory for spatial and temporal information.