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The self-reference effect in memory: A meta-analysis
Abstract
In this review, the authors examine the basis for the mnemonic superiority that results from relating material to the self. A meta-analysis confirms the expected self-reference effect (SRE) in memory, with self-referent encoding strategies yielding superior memory relative to both semantic and other-referent encoding strategies. Consistent with theory and research that suggest self-reference (SR) produces both organized and elaborate processing, the SRE was smaller (a) when SR is compared with other-reference (OR) rather than semantic encoding and (b) when the comparison tasks promote both organization and elaboration. Thus, the SRE appears to result primarily because the self is a well-developed and often-used construct that promotes elaboration and organization of encoded information. The authors discuss the implications of these and other findings for theories of the SRE and for future research.
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“People’s memory for what is associated with the self is considerably better than people’s memory for what is dissociated with the self (Symons and Johnson, 1997).”
From Synchrony in Psychotherapy: A Review and an Integrative Framework for the Therapeutic Alliance (2016) · cites this paper as Symons and Johnson, 1997
In the citing paper
“Overall this confirmed the presence of the expected self-bias in remembering positive valence trait items [Mu and Han, 2010;Symons and Johnson, 1997] and that this self-bias was significantly weakened by OXT treatment.”
From Oxytocin blurs the self-other distinction during trait judgments and reduces medial prefrontal cortex responses: Oxytocin Blurs Self-Other Distinction (2016) · cites this paper as Symons and Johnson, 1997
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Neural correlates of the abolished self-referential memory effect in schizophrenia
Zhao, Y. D., Zhang, D., Tan, S., Song, C. S., Cui, J., Fan, F., Zhu, X., Zou, Y., & Luo, Y. (2013) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291713001177 · Cited by 15
“Studies on normal human adults have consistently found that trait adjectives are better remembered in the self-reflection condition than in the other-reflection condition (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundSocial Identities in Childhood: When Does the Group Become a Part of the Self‐Concept?
Bennett, M., & Sani, F. (2008) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00105.x · Cited by 15
Amnesia for Homicide as a Form of Malingering
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“…effect; Engelkamp & Zimmer, 1994), (2) people remember their own acts far better than acts they only have witnessed (self-reference effect; Symons & Johnson, 1997) and (3) people have recurrent thoughts about memories they try to suppress because they feel ashamed about them (white-bear…”
BackgroundStaugaard, S. R., & Berntsen, D. (2020) · Psychological Research · doi:10.1007/s00426-020-01334-z · Cited by 14
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Testing a weekly utility value intervention in college physics and chemistry courses
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“Activity in regions supporting durable memory might reflect the construction of more elaborate mental scenes, by means of deeper, selfreferential and/or imagery richer encoding processes which are known to increase later memory performance (Craik and Lockhart, 1972; Richardson, 1980; Symons and Johnson, 1997; Trelle e…”
BackgroundThe effect of self-referencing on memory for different kinds of source information
Yin, X., Ma, Y., Xu, X., & Yang, H. (2018) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2018.1532009 · Cited by 14
“Besides, an SRE for item recognition was observed in both experiments and these results are consistent with prior research (Serbun et al., 2011; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundMethodResultFung, H. H.-L., Gong, X., Ngo, N., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2018) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/emo0000529 · Cited by 14
“It is well known that self-relevant information usually is perceived as more meaningful and is more highly prioritized in human cognition compared to self-irrelevant information (Farb et al., 2007; Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977; Schmitz & Johnson, 2007; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundA framework for designing mathematics instruction using comics at the primary school level
Chu, Y.-Y., & Toh, T. (2020) · Journal of Research and Advances in Mathematics Education · doi:10.23917/jramathedu.v5i3.11373 · Cited by 20
“If the students can associate the comics' storyline, it could also provide the students a platform for self-reference-relating the storyline back to themselves - resulting in greatly entrenched memories (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
Judging me and you: Task design modulates self-prioritization
Golubickis, M., & Macrae, C. N. (2021) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103350 · Cited by 14
“…judging a single shape) will likely exploit, on a trial-by-trial basis, differences in the strength of the shape-label associations in working memory that underpin self-prioritization (Janczyk et al., 2019; Reuther & Chakravarthi, 2017; Symons & Johnson, 1997; Wang et al., 2016; Yin et al., 2019).”
Development of evaluative and incidental self-reference effects in childhood
Hutchison, J., Roß, J., & Cunningham, S. J. (2021) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105197 · Cited by 15
Schindler, S., Höhner, A., Moeck, R., Bruchmann, M., & Straube, T. (2021) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797621995197 · Cited by 17
“From the N1 onward, amplitudes for self-related evaluations increased, which is in line with the selfreference effect (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
ResultEquivalent own name bias in autism: An EEG study of the Attentional Blink
Nijhof, A. D., zu Solz, J. V. T., Catmur, C., & Bird, G. (2021) · Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-021-00967-w · Cited by 14
“…been associated with the self, such as one’s own face or name (Bortolon & Raffard, 2018; Wood & Cowan, 1995; Yang et al., 2013), and also for newly self-associated stimuli, such as objects, geometric shapes, and trait adjectives (Cunningham et al., 2008; Sui et al., 2012; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundUdeogu, O. J., Frankenstein, A. N., Sklenar, A. M., Levy, P. U., & Leshikar, E. D. (2022) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-022-00801-z · Cited by 14
The Use of Meta-analysis in Psychology
Shercliffe, R., Stahl, W., & Tuttle, M. P. (2009) · Theory & Psychology · doi:10.1177/0959354309104161 · Cited by 15
When's your birthday? The self‐reference effect in retrieval of dates
Rathbone, C. J., & Moulin, C. J. A. (2010) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.1657 · Cited by 14
“A common critique of the SRE is that it does not necessarily indicate the uniqueness of self-referential processing (e.g. Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialMorrell, K., & HARRINGTON‐BUHAY, N. (2011) · Public Administration · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01977.x · Cited by 14
Ageing and the group-reference effect in memory
Lee, H.-N., Rosa, N. M., & Gutchess, A. H. (2015) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2015.1049184 · Cited by 14
“…in the use of recall and recognition with greater self-reference benefit in recognition tasks when the self-reference is compared to other-reference but greater self-reference benefit in free recall tasks when self-reference is compared to semantic reference (see Symons & Johnson, 1997 for review).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialBrédart, S. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01751 · Cited by 13
“…reference to close others is at odds with results of prior studies that tested the classical selfreference effect on episodic memory and reported a reduction or an elimination of the effect when the comparison target was close to the participant (Bower and Gilligan, 1979; Symons and Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialKalenzaga, S., & Jouhaud, V. (2018) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2018.1430833 · Cited by 18
“Finally, asking their participants to describe their neighbour in the other-reference condition, Mansell and Clark (1999) did not find a self-reference effect on memory performance, even though it is a robust effect (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
MethodLebois, L. A. M., Wolff, J. D., Hill, S. B., Bigony, C. E., Winternitz, S., Ressler, K. J., & Kaufman, M. L. (2018) · Journal of Trauma & Dissociation · doi:10.1080/15299732.2018.1547807 · Cited by 16
“Examples of enhanced processing include superior memory for (Symons & Johnson, 1997) and attentional salience of selfrelated stimuli (Ma & Han, 2010; Sui, Liu, & Han, 2009; Sui, Zhu, & Han, 2006).”
BackgroundInclusive Fitness does not Impact the Survival Processing Effect
Krause, M. A., Trevino, S. D., Cripps, A. E., Chilton, K., Sower, E., & Taylor, J. P. (2019) · Animal Behavior and Cognition · doi:10.26451/abc.06.01.02.2019 · Cited by 14
“Previous work has shown that there is a mnemonic advantage for self-referential processing (Klein, 2012; Symons & Johnson, 1997), which may also account for our findings in Experiment 3.”
Ng, V. M. T., Huang, G., & Young, M. N. (2019) · Asia Pacific Journal of Management · doi:10.1007/s10490-018-9610-z · Cited by 14
“Although these potential biases exist, empirical evidence suggests that critical events, such as organizational departures, create strong images that are less likely than other memories to decay (e.g., Symons & Johnson, 1997; Wheeler, Stuss, & Tulving, 1997).”
Barzy, M. M. H., Ferguson, H. J., & Williams, D. M. (2020) · Autism · doi:10.1177/1362361320936820 · Cited by 13
“…to process and structures cognition better than information relevant to others (especially unfamiliar others), among both TD people (Kuiper & Rogers, 1979; Sui & Humphreys, 2015; Symons & Johnson, 1997) and autistic people (e.g. Grainger et al., 2014; Lind et al., 2019; Williams et al., 2018).”
BackgroundWhat have I just done? Anchoring, self-knowledge, and judgments of recent behavior
Cheek, N. N., Coe-Odess, S., & Schwartz, B. N. (2015) · Judgment and Decision Making · doi:10.1017/s1930297500003193 · Cited by 14
“People attend more to self-relevant information and behavior, and self-referential encoding of information results in better recall (e.g., Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
Do Student Perceptions of Diversity Emphasis Relate to Perceived Learning of Psychology?
Elicker, J. D., Snell, A. F., & O’Malley, A. L. (2009) · Teaching of Psychology · doi:10.1080/00986280903425706 · Cited by 14
“Seeing the personal rele- vance of material enables self-referent encoding, which yields superior memory due to elaborate processing (Klein & Loftus, 1988; Rogers et al., 1977; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundThe function of the self-attention network
Cunningham, S. J. (2015) · Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17588928.2015.1075485 · Cited by 14
Predicting memory formation over multiple study episodesPreprint
Sievers, C., Bird, C. M., & Renoult, L. (2019) · Learning & Memory · doi:10.1101/lm.049791.119 · Cited by 17
Imagining triadic interactions simultaneously activates mirror and mentalizing systems
Trapp, K., Spengler, S., Wüstenberg, T., Wiers, C. E., Busch, N. A., & Bermpohl, F. (2014) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.05.003 · Cited by 14
“by showing the self-reference effect in memory (the superiority effect 222 for items encoded in reference to the self, see Rogers et al., 1977, for a 223 meta-analysis see Symons and Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundThe self and a close-other: differences between processing of faces and newly acquired information
Żochowska, A., Jakuszyk, P., Nowicka, M. M., & Nowicka, A. (2022) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/bhac201 · Cited by 14
“…self-relevance facilitates stimulus processing at different levels: items linked with the self are easier to notice, evaluate, and remember when compared to material associated with other people (e.g. Symons and Johnson 1997; Keyes and Brady 2010; Kotlewska and Nowicka 2016; Nowicka et al. 2016).”
Knock yourself out: Brief mindfulness-based meditation eliminates self-prioritization
Golubickis, M., Tan, L., Saini, S., Catterall, K., Morozovaite, A., Khasa, S., & Macrae, C. N. (2022) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/s13423-022-02111-2 · Cited by 14
“Vol.:(0123456789) Keywords Self-prioritization · Ownership effect · Mindfulness-based meditation · Drift diffusion model Decades of research have identified a purportedly basic feature of social cognition—information processing and decision-making are biased in decidedly self-serving and self-prioritizing ways (Conway…”
BackgroundInfluentialIs self always prioritised? Attenuating the ownership self-reference effect in memory
Clarkson, T. R., Cunningham, S. J., Haslam, C., & Kritikos, A. (2022) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2022.103420 · Cited by 14
Sense of agency may not improve recollection and familiarity in recognition memory
Tsuji, N., & Imaizumi, S. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-26210-1 · Cited by 13
Matt, L. M., Seah, T. H. S., & Coifman, K. G. (2024) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0299540 · Cited by 14
“…scores on the emotion knowledge multiple choice quiz did not impact differentiation abilities is largely in line with both learning science [68] and contemporary treatments such as CBT and DBT which focuses on not just skills/knowledge acquisition but also application and/or generalization…”
BackgroundSense of self in first-time pregnancy
Perrykkad, K., O’Neill, R., & Jamadar, S. D. (2024) · npj Women s Health · doi:10.1038/s44294-024-00018-y · Cited by 19
Wunderlich, A., & Gramann, K. (2018) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96385-3_18 · Cited by 13
Memory for neutral, emotional and trauma-related information in sexual abuse survivors
Forest, M., & Blanchette, I. (2018) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008198.2018.1476439 · Cited by 13
“Encoding information in a selfrelevant way is generally associated with better memory (Symons & Johnson, 1997), an effect that may result from better strategies or better organization in the encoding the self-relevant material.”
BackgroundOtgaar, H., de Ruiter, C., Sumampouw, N. E. J., Erens, B., & Muris, P. (2020) · Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology · doi:10.1007/s11896-020-09401-2 · Cited by 15
The Prominence of Self-referential Processing across ERP and Memory Consolidation in Children
Hudson, A., Green, E. S., Wilson, M., Itier, R. J., & Henderson, H. A. (2021) · Developmental Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/87565641.2021.1991354 · Cited by 15
Simulating denial increases false memory rates for abuse unrelated information
Bücken, C. A., Mangiulli, I., & Otgaar, H. (2022) · Behavioral Sciences & the Law · doi:10.1002/bsl.2566 · Cited by 14
“Such self-referenced information is better remembered than other-referenced information, an effect known as the self-reference effect (Symons & Johnson, 1997; Wang et al., 2019, 2021).”
BackgroundDifferences in working memory coding of biological motion attributed to oneself and others
Wozniak, M. M., Schmidt, T. T., Wu, Y., Blankenburg, F., & Hohwy, J. (2022) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.25879 · Cited by 14
“…promotes the view that self-associated movements are distinctly processed, previous work has indicated that self-related material is processed in a priviledged way and one could therefore expect a higher performance for WM of self-related material (Sui & Humphreys, 2015; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundStewart, D. D., Stewart, C. B., & Walden, J. C. (2007) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430207078693 · Cited by 13
“Our SRE fi nding represents a replication of a wellestablished fi nding (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialEffects of emotion and perspective on remembering events: An eye-tracking study
Gülçay, Ç., & Cangöz, B. (2016) · Journal of Eye Movement Research · doi:10.16910/jemr.9.2.4 · Cited by 13
“According to the self-reference effect, people tend to remember better objects that are relevant with themselves than events that are irrelevant to them (Rogers, Kuiper and Kirker, 1977; Symons and Johnson, 1997; Serbun, 2009).”
BackgroundRevisiting the Sovereignty of Social Cognition: Finally Some Action
Macrae, C. N., & Miles, L. K. (2012) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446247631.n1 · Cited by 13
“Consistent with the memory literature (e.g., self-reference effect; Symons & Johnson, 1997), participants demonstrated an advantage for recalling more of the words they spoke compared to words the confederate uttered when coordination was anti-phase.”
ResultTrelle, A. N., Henson, R. N., & Simons, J. S. (2015) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/a0039116 · Cited by 13
Dewhurst, S. A., Anderson, R. J., Grace, L., & Shevchenko, J. (2017) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/j.jml.2017.01.003 · Cited by 13
Zander, S., Wetzel, S., Kühl, T., & Bertel, S. (2017) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02202 · Cited by 13
“The self-referential effect (Rogers et al., 1977; Klein and Loftus, 1988; Symons and Johnson, 1997) is one theoretical explanation of the personalization principle.”
BackgroundNeural correlates of context-independent and context-dependent self-knowledge
Martial, C., Stawarczyk, D., & D’Argembeau, A. (2018) · Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2018.05.004 · Cited by 14
“However, these two forms of trait knowledge are functionally independent (Klein & Lax, 2010), and there is evidence that general self-representations form a particularly elaborated and organized knowledge structure (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundKoski, J. E., McHaney, J. R., Rigney, A. E., & Beer, J. S. (2020) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116752 · Cited by 12
Neuroimaging studies of self-reflection*
Zhu, Y. (2004) · Progress in Natural Science Materials International · doi:10.1080/10020070412331343511 · Cited by 13
Are Descriptions of the Self more Complex than Descriptions of Others?
Locke, K. D. (2002) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/01461672022811008 · Cited by 13
“The tendency for self-reference to yield better memory than other-reference—the self-reference effect (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977)—is eliminated or virtually eliminated when the other person is an intimate (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundMack, W., Eberle, C., Frölich, L., & Knopf, M. (2005) · Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders · doi:10.1159/000089135 · Cited by 13
“but the semantic and episodic memory aspects of action representation. In this theoretical view, actions are seen as part of semantic memory, and performing an action leads to a strong episodic integration of object and agent due to high self-involvement that optimizes encoding [”
The Internalisation of Group Identities in Childhood
Bennett, M., & Sani, F. (2011) · Psychological Studies · doi:10.1007/s12646-011-0063-4 · Cited by 13
“This finding is known as the Self-Reference Effect (SRE) and has been well replicated (Symons and Johnson 1997).”
BackgroundCross-Cultural Differences in Memory
Gutchess, A. H., & Huff, S. T. (2016) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199357376.013.11 · Cited by 13
Decoding episodic autobiographical memory in naturalistic virtual reality
Lenormand, D., Mentec, I., Gaston-Bellegarde, A., Orriols, E., & Piolino, P. (2024) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-024-76944-3 · Cited by 12
“Similarly, the implication of the self in events, especially through the self-reference effect 78–80 , has a positive influence on memory: self-related stimuli tend to be better remembered than other-related ones (see for instance, for a recent study, Moses-Payne, et al. 9 ), and that effect is…”
The Impact of Self-Relevance on Preschool Children’s Sharing
Zhang, W., Xiang, S., Dai, H., Ren, M., Shen, Y., Fan, W., & Zhong, Y. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01028 · Cited by 13
Fields, E. C., Bowen, H. J., Daley, R. T., Parisi, K. R., Gutchess, A. H., & Kensinger, E. A. (2021) · Neurobiology of Aging · doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.02.009 · Cited by 12
Keener, E., & Kotvas, K. (2022) · Gender Issues · doi:10.1007/s12147-022-09297-8 · Cited by 14
“Similarly, according to Symons and Johnson’s [44] meta-analytic research on the self-reference effect, information that is relevant to the self is better remembered.”
ResultKokici, L., Chirtop, G., Ferguson, H. J., & Martin, A. K. (2023) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjop.12646 · Cited by 17
Posterior theta activity reveals an early signal of self-face recognition
Kotlewska, I., Panek, B., Nowicka, A., & Asanowicz, D. (2023) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-023-41071-y · Cited by 15
“Face Present self 88 (26) 35, 141 109 (19) 70, 147 67 (12) 42, 92 81 (10) 60, 102”
Depersonalization affects self-prioritization of bodily, but not abstract self-related information.
Wozniak, M. M., McEllin, L. S., Hohwy, J., & Ciaunica, A. (2023) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/xhp0001153 · Cited by 13
The Origins and Emergence of Self-Representation
Southgate, V. (2024) · Annual Review of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-devpsych-120621-025747 · Cited by 16
Destination memory for self-generated actions
Haj, M. E. (2015) · Aging Clinical and Experimental Research · doi:10.1007/s40520-015-0505-2 · Cited by 12
“Information connected to oneself is thought to be prioritized in memory (for review see [20]).”
BackgroundPharmacy Students’ Perception of an Elective Course on Evidence-based Learning Strategies
de la Peña, I., Knecht, K. T., & Gavaza, P. (2020) · American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education · doi:10.5688/ajpe8232 · Cited by 12
“The use of elaboration also improved non-pharmacy students’ acquisition of knowledge.(35,37,38) Notably, many students remarked on the effectiveness of retrieval practice when used as a tool to study for their courses, in retrieving information and remembering them long term.”
BackgroundPerrykkad, K., & Hohwy, J. (2022) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-022-00870-0 · Cited by 14
Wakeham-Lewis, R. M., Ozubko, J. D., & Fawcett, J. M. (2022) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2022.2115075 · Cited by 12
“According to research on the self-reference effect (for a classic meta-analysis, see Symons & Johnson, 1997), processing information in relation to the “self” results in a major improvement to memory by encouraging deeper encoding and connecting the memory to one’s self-representation.”
MethodSelf-Compassion in Psychotherapy: Clinical Integration, Evidence Base, and Mechanisms of Change
Germer, C. K. (2023) · Mindfulness in behavioral health · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-22348-8_22 · Cited by 16
Long-Term, Explicit Memory in Rituals
Czachesz, I. (2010) · Journal of Cognition and Culture · doi:10.1163/156853710x531212 · Cited by 12
Self-Association and Attentional Processing Regarding Perceptually Salient Items
Sel, A., Sui, J., Shepherd, J., & Humphreys, G. W. (2019) · Review of Philosophy and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s13164-018-0430-3 · Cited by 12
The relations between temporal and social perceptual biases: Evidence from perceptual matching
Kim, H., Stolte, M., & Humphreys, G. W. (2019) · Attention Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/s13414-018-01662-8 · Cited by 12
Stampacchia, S., Pegg, S., Hallam, G., Smallwood, J., Ralph, M. A. L., Thompson, H. E., & Jefferies, E. (2019) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2019.04.014 · Cited by 14
Prioritised self-referential processing is modulated by emotional arousal
Qian, H., Wang, Z., Li, C., & Gao, X. (2019) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/1747021819892158 · Cited by 12
Wang, J., Otgaar, H., Howe, M. L., & Cheng, S. (2021) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/17470218211009772 · Cited by 11
Simulation-Based Mentalizing Generates a “proxy” Self-Reference Effect in Memory
Allan, K., Morson, S. M., Dixon, S., Martin, D. S., & Cunningham, S. J. (2016) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1209532 · Cited by 13
Cuperus, A. A., & van der Ham, I. J. M. (2016) · Learning and Motivation · doi:10.1016/j.lmot.2016.09.005 · Cited by 12
“The personal focus criterion may be especially important in his respect, as self-referent encoding yields superior memory (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundThadani, V., Huchting, K., & LaBrie, J. W. (2009) · PubMed · Cited by 12
Peng, Z., Hu, Z., Wang, X., & Liu, H. (2020) · Scandinavian Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/sjop.12643 · Cited by 11
Identities without Products: When the Preference for Self-Linked Products Weakens
Weiss, L., & Tanner, R. J. (2024) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1093/jcr/ucae038 · Cited by 13
Black, P. W., Cecchini, M. S., & Newman, A. H. (2024) · Accounting Organizations and Society · doi:10.1016/j.aos.2024.101565 · Cited by 11
Alexithymia and Locus of Control among Psychiatric Outpatients
Hungr, C., Ogrodniczuk, J. S., & Söchting, I. (2016) · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · doi:10.1007/s11469-016-9687-x · Cited by 11
“Furthermore, guidance or advice that is conveyed by the therapist and which requires active involvement on the part of the patient will likely fall outside of the alexithymic patient’s self-schema and not be assimilated (Symons and Johnson 1997).”
BackgroundMangiulli, I., Riesthuis, P., & Otgaar, H. (2021) · Psychological Injury and Law · doi:10.1007/s12207-021-09441-x · Cited by 11
Schindler, S., Vormbrock, R., & Kissler, J. M. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-07270-9 · Cited by 11
da Silva, V. R., & Vieira, M. L. (2022) · FEMS Microbiology Letters · doi:10.1093/femsle/fnac097 · Cited by 13
“…multimodal nature of comics can increase the readers’ engagement and facilitate learning (Eilam and Poyas 2010, Sousanis 2015) and the use of characters in a situation context can provide emotional attachment and self-reference, facilitating the formation of new memories (Symons and Johnson 1997).”
BackgroundGuida, A., Gras, D., Noël, Y., Bohec, O. L., Quaireau, C., & Nicolas, S. (2013) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/s13421-012-0284-3 · Cited by 11
“…can be linked to the self-reference effect (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977), whereby information encoded with reference to the self improves memory performance, as compared to semantic encoding, for example (e.g., Bellezza, 1984; Kuiper & Rogers, 1979; for a review, see Symons & Johnson, 1997).”
BackgroundYoshimura, S., & Toichi, M. (2014) · Research in Autism · doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2013.12.005 · Cited by 11
“It is acknowledged that healthy adults show SRE robustly (Symons & Johnson, 1997) with emergence in at least middle childhood (Pullyblank, Bisanz, Scott, & Champion, 1985).”
BackgroundResultEvaluation of trait adjectives and ego pathology in schizophrenia: An N400 study
Metzler, S., Theodoridou, A., Aleksandrowicz, A., Müller, M., Obermann, C., Kawohl, W., & Heekeren, K. (2013) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2013.12.025 · Cited by 11
Effects of self-referencing on feeling-of-knowing accuracy and recollective experience
Boduroğlu, A., Pehlivanoglu, D., Tekcan, A. Í., & Kapucu, A. (2014) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2014.925927 · Cited by 11
“These effect sizes are comparable, if not higher, in magnitude than those studies reported by Symons and Johnson (1997)’smeta-analysis on SRE and memory.”
BackgroundResultKrans, J. (2013) · Consciousness and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.concog.2013.08.006 · Cited by 11
The Emergent Self: How Distributed Neural Networks Support Self-Representation
Molnar-Szakacs, I., & Uddin, L. Q. (2012) · Handbooks of sociology and social research · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4473-8_13 · Cited by 11
Neural Correlates of Self-Reference Effect in Early Alzheimer’s Disease
Gaubert, M., Villain, N., Landeau, B., Mézenge, F., Egret, S., Perrotin, A., Belliard, S., Sayette, V. D. L., Eustache, F., Desgranges, B., et al. (2016) · Journal of Alzheimer s Disease · doi:10.3233/jad-160561 · Cited by 14
“However, the reported absence of any difference in brain activity during recognition could also reflect the fact that the control condition (processing items with reference to another person, who happened to be a celebrity) also engaged self-reference processes [5, 18].”
Forster, S., Drueke, B., Britz, S., Gauggel, S., & Mainz, V. (2019) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0217870 · Cited by 9
Díez-Álamo, A. M., Glenberg, A. M., Villoria, E. D., Rodríguez, M. Á. A., & Fernández, Á. (2020) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/j.jml.2020.104147 · Cited by 11
Savostyanov, A. N., Tamozhnikov, S. S., Bocharov, A. V., Сапрыгин, А. Е., Matushkin, Y., Lashin, S. A., Kolpakova, G., Sudobin, K., & Knyazev, G. G. (2020) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2019.00437 · Cited by 14
Yes! I love my mother as much as myself: Self- and mother-association effects in an Indian sample
Verma, A., Jain, A., & Srinivasan, N. (2021) · Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology · doi:10.1177/17470218211033118 · Cited by 11
“…such information with the recall performance of information not associated with the self or associated with other socially salient individuals like friends, family members (mother, father, siblings), or with famous personalities (for a detailed review, see Symons & Johnson, 1997, and Klein, 2012b).”
BackgroundSelf-Enhanced False Memory Across the Life Span
Wang, J., Otgaar, H., Howe, M. L., Dong, Q., & Zhou, C. (2022) · The Journals of Gerontology Series B · doi:10.1093/geronb/gbac020 · Cited by 11
Improving memory following prefrontal cortex damage with the PQRST method
Ciaramelli, E., Neri, F., Marini, L., & Braghittoni, D. (2015) · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00211 · Cited by 11
The extensibility of the endowment effect to others is mediated by degree of intimacy
Zhao, W., Feng, T., & Kazinka, R. (2014) · Asian Journal Of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/ajsp.12061 · Cited by 11
Analysis of the Private, Collective, and Relational Self-Cognitions among Han and Tibetan Chinese
Huang, W., Mamat, M., Rui, S., Zhang, T., Li, H., Wang, Y., Luo, W., & Wu, Y. (2014) · Psychological Reports · doi:10.2466/07.17.21.pr0.115c12z9 · Cited by 11
“This is called the self-reference eff ect ( Symons & Johnson, 1997 ).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Symons, C. S., & Johnson, B. T.
- Affiliations
- Houghton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Symons, Cynthia S.
- ORCID
- Johnson, Blair T.
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1997
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 371-394
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- OpenAlex
- W2167106897
- Cited by
- 1,361
- References
- 102
- Citations by year
- 2026: 61 · 2025: 56 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 76 · 2021: 105 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 76 · 2018: 72 · 2017: 69 · 2016: 65 · 2015: 65 · 2014: 58 · 2013: 71 · 2012: 53
- FWCI
- 2.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OpenCommons - UConn (University of Connecticut) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Syracuse University
- National Institutes of Health (7k21mh001377-06)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH01377-01)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- self-reference effect, semantic encoding, elaborative processing, information organization, encoding strategies
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attention, Child, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Recall, Self Concept, Verbal Learning
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