Subject-performed tasks (SPTs) may facilitate the deficit in
associative learning among individuals with amnestic mild cognitive
impairment (aMCI) by inducing episodic integration of object-action
associations. To test this hypothesis, we examined free recall and
recognition memory following enactment and verbal encoding in healthy
elderly controls and individuals with aMCI. Study lists contained either
semantically integrated (“Bounce the ball”) or crossed
object-action commands, in which episodic and semantic associations were
placed in opposition (“Pet the compass”). Associative learning
was indeed better after SPT than verbal encoding and with integrated
relative to crossed lists for the aMCI group, as it was for controls.
Moreover, the degree to which SPTs reduced the semantic interference
inherent in the crossed conditions was equivalent for the two groups. The
results showed that enactment facilitates formation of episodic
associations, even when not supported by preexisting semantic knowledge,
and even among individuals who have particular difficulty forming new
associations (JINS, 2006, 12, 493–501.)