Conscious awareness of actions shapes motor memory consolidation

Conscious awareness of actions is known to support the acquisition and skilled execution of motor skills, but its contribution to memory consolidation following initial learning remains unknown. In two experiments, we investigated the role of subjective action awareness within a dual-process framework of consolidation, distinguishing between memory improvement and stabilization. Participants practiced a motor-sequence task under action-awareness or yoked-control conditions, followed by 24-hour delayed retention and sequence-knowledge tests. In Experiment 1, individual levels of action awareness were positively correlated with delayed performance gains, suggesting a link to memory improvement mechanisms. In Experiment 2, action awareness heightened susceptibility to interference from competing learning, suggesting reduced memory stabilization. Findings reveal that conscious awareness of actions has a dual effect, enhancing early learning and differentially modulating consolidation pathways. Our results demonstrate that conscious awareness of actions shapes motor skill encoding and consolidation, thus highlighting the role of metacognitive processes in motor memory formation.