Using actions to enhance memory: effects of enactment, gestures, and exercise on human memory

Few would doubt the benefits of exercise on one’s physical well-being. However, the benefits of exercise on one’s mental abilities are not nearly as extolled. More directly, the perspective that our bodies have a significant influence on our minds is still relatively new, though reviews by Rosenbaum (2005) and Madan and Singhal (2012a) suggest that this is beginning to change. This idea is also in line with the embodied approach to cognition (e.g., Clark, 1997; Lakoff and Johnson, 1999; Wilson, 2002; Anderson, 2003; Barsalou, 2008; Fischer and Zwaan, 2008). Briefly, embodied cognition suggests that physical properties of the human body, particularly the perceptual and motor systems, play an important role in cognition—the body influences the mind just as the mind influences the body. This approach is further supported by findings that individual body properties such as handedness can influence how individuals understand abstract concepts (Casasanto, 2009, 2011). One particularly interesting facet of the idea that our body can affect cognition is the influence of actions, gestures, and exercise on memory performance: the hypothesis is that our physical movements, and even the amount that we exercise, can affect our ability to remember. In the current paper we will provide an overview on the disparate research paradigms that support this hypothesis, and their resulting implications.