GENERALIZING EVERYDAY MEMORY - SIGNS AND HANDEDNESS

Memory for frequently encountered road signs was investigated. In Expe riment 1, the average level of recall of road sign features was found to be only 47%. In Experiment 2, more left-handed than right-handed pe ople recalled that a walking figure faces right on one sign, whereas m ore right-handed than left-handed people recalled that a digging figur e faces left on another sign. Performance thus reflected not a differe nce in level of mnemonic ability between left-handed and right-handed groups but instead the compatibility between group and task. In Experi ment 3, participants were asked to draw any figure walking and any fig ure digging, with a pattern of results similar to that of Experiment 2 . It is suggested that handedness effects in recall are mediated by mo tor imagery.