Self-referential Memory Research Articles

On the self-protective nature of inconsistency-negativity management: Using the person memory paradigm to examine self-referent memory.

On the self-protective nature of inconsistency-negativity management: Using the person memory paradigm to examine self-referent memory.

On the self-protective nature of inconsistency-negativity management: using the person memory paradigm to examine self-referent memory.

How do individuals remember feedback that is inconsistent or negative? According to the inconsistency-negativity resolution model, individuals are motivated to reduce uncertainty and resolve inconsistency even when threat to self is potential. They more deeply process and better remember negative self- than other-referent information. According to the inconsistency-negativity neglect model, individuals are motivated to protect the self against threat. They engage in more shallow processing and remember less negative self- than other-referent information. Participants read and recalled either self- or other-referent mixed-valence information. The neglect model was supported in personality and minimal feedback settings. A chronometric exploration of processing mechanisms and the ruling out of a retrieval interference account clarified aspects of the model. Individuals are hypersensitive to threat potential: They will protect the self against even hypothetical threat.

The multidimensional property of the self and self-reference effect

It has been proposed that self-referent memory of verbal materials requires multidimensional processing that corresponds to the person's cognitive structure of the self (Horiuchi, 1996). In this study, two experiments were conducted to investigate the hypothesis that self-reference effect was due to information processing that was deeper and broader in self-referent than in semantic or other-referent memory. In Experiment 1, recall under self-reference condition was better than semantic condition. However, six-dimension processing condition, with extroversion, emotional stability, etc., was not significantly better than the self-reference condition. In Experiment 2, with mother as the other, other-referent memory was as good as that under three-dimension processing condition, using such dimensions of others as social desirability. However, recall under these conditions was inferior to that under self-reference condition. These results suggest that the self-reference effect is due to the multidimensional property of self cognition.

The Impact of Exercise-Induced Arousal on the Self-Other Memory Effect

This study explored the relationship between arousal and memory for self-referent versus other-referent adjectives. Subjects worked on the Kuiper and Rogers (1979) adjective rating task under varying levels of arousal. The Kuiper and Rogers task requires subjects to judge whether some adjectives are self-descriptive and whether others describe the experimenter. The general finding is that memory is greater for those adjectives used in the self-rating task. The present study found that this effect interacted with arousal level, such that it was most robust in conditions where subjects' arousal level (i.e., systolic blood pressure and self-report) was above baseline. We interpret these results to be consistent with recent contentions that the self-referent memory effect is mediated by the greater availability of self-schemas (Ganellen & Carver, 1985; kuiper & Rogers, 1979; Markus, Crane, Bernstein, & Siladi, 1982; Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977). Moreover, these results indicate that classic motivational factors may have important procedural implications in research using this paradigm.

Public and Private Self-Consciousness and the Recall of Self-Relevant Information

Two experiments were conducted to assess the extent to which public and private self-consciousness affect the recall of self-relevant information. Subjects rated adjectives under one of three conditions (public self-reference, private self-reference, non-self-reference) and were given a surprise recall task. Results indicated that subjects showed the "self-reference memory enhancement effect"(Rogers, 1981) for those words processed under the self-referent condition congruent with their types of self-consciousness. High public self-conscious subjects recalled significantly more words rated under the public self-reference condition than the other two conditions, whereas high private self-conscious subjects recalled significantly more words rated under the private self-reference condition. Implications for further research are discussed.