While the Kaufman Hand Movements Test (KHMT) is argued to be
sensitive to cognitive impairment secondary to various forms
of brain dysfunction in adults, it is unknown which cognitive
processes it addresses. Dual-task research has employed tasks
similar to the KHMT to determine whether such tasks assess (1)
verbal or visuospatial memory, or (2) a proposed additional
short-term memory component, movement memory. However findings
consistent with both hypotheses have been reported. Experiment
1 involved 24 participants completing a hand movement task and
a letter span task under articulatory suppression, finger movement
and no interference conditions. Performance on both the hand
movement task and letter span task was significantly reduced
by articulatory suppression. In Experiment 2, 16 participants
were administered the hand movement task and a Corsi span task
under articulatory suppression, finger movement, spatial tapping,
and no interference. Again, hand movement span was most reduced
by articulatory suppression, in contrast to Corsi span which
was most reduced by spatial tapping. Hand movement task performance
was therefore assumed to rely upon verbal recoding strategies
and thus the proposition of an additional component of movement
memory was not supported. (JINS, 2003, 9,
633–641.)