Conscious awareness of actions shapes motor memory consolidation

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