Recall of congruent information in the self-reference task

Abstract

Information descriptive of the self has prior associations with the representation of the self in memory. Therefore, information descriptive of the self should be recalled better than information not descriptive of the self. This is the congruent-information hypothesis. A related hypothesis, the trait-superiority hypothesis, states that trait adjectives are more easily recalled using a self-reference task than using another task. The results of previous research are equivocal with regard to the congruent-information hypothesis and sparse with regard to the trait-superiority hypothesis. College students judged whether trait adjectives and nouns described themselves. Another group judged whether the trait adjectives and nouns described objects in their houses. Results support the congruent-information hypothesis for the self-reference effect, but not the trait-superiority hypothesis.