Active Self-aspects as a Basis for Encoding Specificity Effects in Memory

Abstract

The self-concept is known to be multifaceted, containing self-aspects that vary in activation (Linville & Carlston, 1994; McConnell, 2011). However, little is known about how these self-aspects function in memory. The present study tested whether variations in active self-aspects are capable of eliciting encoding specificity effects (similar to state-dependent memory). The results revealed that people exhibit superior memory when their active self-aspect is the same at both encoding and retrieval of information, relative to when different self-aspects are active at encoding and retrieval. This study provides additional evidence that self-aspects are important and variable memory structures. Importantly, encoding specificity was found regardless of whether the information was encoded in a self-referential or semantic manner, providing the first evidence that self-aspects are also implicated in memory that is not self-referential.