Self-Referencing in Poor and Good Readers' Recall

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether use of a student's name in a reading passage (self-referencing) would improve the child's recall of information from the passage. 17 poor readers and 14 good readers, ages 10 to 13 years, were asked to read six reading passages and then spontaneously recall the paragraph information. Three of the passages contained the students' names while the other three passages contained generic names, e.g., Mary Brown. Analysis indicated that both groups collectively recalled more information from paragraphs containing their own names and that the groups did not differ in recall on either type of paragraph. It appears that self-referencing instructional materials could have benefits for students' learning.