Studies on “embodiment” show that moving your body can enhance cognition. We investigated such effects in a verbal memory task across age. In Study 1, children, adolescents, and young adults (N = 148) were tested in group sessions and reproduced number series of increasing length. In the “embodied” condition, subjects walked to numbered gymnastic mats. In the “sitting” condition, the numbers were presented visually. All age groups, except the youngest, showed a deterioration of verbal memory performance in the embodied condition compared to sitting. In Study 2, young adults (n = 33, M_age = 24.5 years) and children (n = 28, M_age = 7.3 years) were tested individually, with smaller target fields. There were no differences in verbal memory performance between the conditions. This indicates that “embodiment” does not always lead to performance enhancements. Instead, moving through space while thinking represents a dual-task situation, causing performance decrements across age.

中文翻译：

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在语言记忆任务中实施全身运动：寻找好处但主要寻找成本

关于“具身”的研究表明，移动身体可以增强认知。我们调查了跨年龄语言记忆任务中的这种影响。在研究 1 中，儿童、青少年和年轻成人 ( N  = 148) 在小组会议中进行了测试，并再现了长度增加的数字系列。在“具体化”条件下，受试者走到编号的体操垫上。在“坐下”条件下，数字以视觉方式呈现。与坐着相比，除了最年轻的年龄组之外，所有年龄组在具身状态下的语言记忆表现均有所下降。在研究 2 中，年轻人（n  = 33，M_年龄 = 24.5 岁）和儿童（n  = 28，M_年龄 = 7.3 年）分别进行了测试，目标范围较小。条件之间的言语记忆表现没有差异。这表明“具体化”并不总是导致性能增强。相反，在思考的同时在空间中移动代表着双重任务的情况，导致性能随着年龄的增长而下降。