Post‐Learning Verbal Information Changes Visual and Motor Memory for Hand‐Manipulative Tasks

Many instructions of a motor task include visual and verbal information. However, verbal information presented after a visual event has been shown to influence memory. This study examined whether this effect applies for hand‐manipulative motor tasks such as knot tying. Eighty‐six naive participants learned to tie the archaic bowline. Subsequently, half of the participants received misleading verbal information about the cowboy bowline, which differs from the originally instructed archaic bowline in one central detail: At a certain point, the rope crosses from left to right instead of from right to left. The remaining half of the participants received no misinformation. Dependent variables measured visual and motor memory for the knot. Results showed that misleading verbal information influenced visual and motor memory for knot‐tying tasks. More specifically, the misleading information changed memory at exactly this point to which it referred. This study suggests new avenues for our understanding and design of learning environments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.