The self-reference effect in memory: A meta-analysis

“We found self-reference effects, similar to those found in previous studies, in free recall but not in priming (cf. Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“Previous research demonstrated that self-descriptive traits would be better remembered than other-descriptive traits [46]; using such paradigms, neuroimaging researchers found that, compared to other-judgments, enhanced medial prefrontal cortex activation was related to self-judgment [47].”

“Based on this theory, symons and Johnson (1997) proposed that the self-reference effect occurs because self is a structure that is easily developed and frequently used and can therefore promote both the elaboration and organization of information during the encoding process.”

“…in non-clinical participants have reliably shown that stimuli that are processed with reference to the self are more likely to be recalled than are stimuli that are processed with reference to another person (the self-reference effect; Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“Therefore, it is of interest if there are differences between a brain’s processing of information about one-self and information about other objects, including other people? Research has proven that information somehow related to oneself can be remembered better than information related to other persons or inanimate t…”

“Psychologically, homophily may emerge from humans’ greater attention to (Symons and Johnson 1997, Patterson and Joseph 2013) and positive regard for (Taylor and Brown 1988) self-relevant attributes.”

“…little unconvinced by the argument that changes infants understanding of ownership are not relevant to the switch – but only because I think a full understanding of ownership is inherently self-referent, and the literature on the (lack of) relation ownership and mirror self-recognition is limited.”

“…of information processing, ranging from early, sensory stages to more advanced, cognitive ones (Craik & Tulving, 1975; Cunningham et al., 2008, 2013; Hudson et al., 2020; Rogers et al., 1977; Sui et al., 2012; Symons & Johnson, 1997; Turk et al., 2008; van den Bos et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2013).”

“This is generally coherent with the self-reference effect (SRE) in memory 24 .”

“Furthermore, superior memory performance was found for mother-trait judgments in East Asian participants, but not in Western participants (Symons and Johnson, 1997; Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 January 2018 | Volume 8 | Article 2114 Zhu and Zhang, 2002).”

“Further, the literature on the self-reference effect suggests that self-concept is important for information processing: People can remember and process information that is related to the self particularly well (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“According to this explanation, information can be better organized and elaborated when it is referenced to the self as compared to when information is not referenced to the self (cf. Klein & Loftus, 1988; Rogers et al., 1977; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“Comics often rely on the use of characters and situation models, which form the basis of emotional attachment and facilitate the formation of new memories [18].”

“…Moray, 1959), perceptual decision-making (Constable et al., 2019; Golubickis et al., 2017; Humphreys & Sui, 2016), memory (Rogers et al., 1977; Symons & Johnson, 1997; Yin et al., 2019), and overt movements (Constable et al., 2011; Constable et al., 2014; Desebrock et al., 2018; Desebrock &…”

“The self-reference effect refers to the memory benefit arising from self-referent encoding strategies relative to otherreferent strategies (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977; Symons & Johnson, 1997), even when the encoding is incidental (Bower & Gilligan, 1979; Ganellen & Carver, 1985).”

“In a meta-analysis on the impact of self-referencing, Symons and Johnson (1997) found that the SRE yielded superior memory relative to both semantic and other referent coding strategies.”

“…Memory, Aging, Arousal, and Context 141 interaction, which leads to different types of processing from nonsocial stimuli, such as threatening vigilance (Sander, Grafman, & Zalla, 2003), empathy, or self-referential processing (Gutchess, Kensinger, Yoon, & Schacter, 2007; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“…effect states that encoded material in relationship to the self, such as “are you such and such” has a mnemonic advantage over the same material encoded in relation to another person or another feature and this is because ofthe organisation of the self-semantic structure (Symons and Johnson, 1997).”

“The self-reference effect is the memory benefit that results from relating information to the self schema (Klein & Loftus, 1988; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“tion task avoids the issues with self-schema encoding (Symons and Johnson 1997) or emotional processing which accompany preference judgments (Kensinger and Corkin 2003).”

“This memory advantage for self-associated information, also known as the self-reference effect, has been extensively examined in the adult memory literature (see Symons & Johnson, 1997, for a review) and has most recently been demonstrated in preschool-aged children.”

“…effects through the measurement of the self-reference effect (SRE); a well-established memory bias evidenced by improvement in episodic memory when encoded information is self-relevant (Cunningham et al., 2008; Klein & Loftus, 1988; Rogers et al., 1977; Ross et al., 2011; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“The reason for the higher discrimination rate for one’s own sounds is due to the meta-cognitive bias that allows for better recognition when based on one’s own actions [Symons and Johnson, 1997].”

“…(Kim & Johnson, 2012 ), possibly because the former can be related to a net - work of self-related knowledge and be processed better that way (Symons & Johnson, 1997 ) or perhaps because self-relevance may result in enhanced engagement of arousal or reward systems and influence memory in…”

“The interactive-imagery task conducted at Experiment 1 was administered in another group of participants, although at this time participants were asked to include self-referential information in the imagery task (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“According to this hypothesis, when retelling with an emotional focus, individuals are likely to retrieve the most important events, and to relate them to themselves: Both rehearsal and relating events to the self are likely to have positive consequences for memory (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“A plausible explanation for why teammembers identified with the rovers and why this enhanced their ability to respond to environmental affordances comes from research on the benefits of self-referential information processing (Symons and Johnson, 1997).”

“org 2 October 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 709601 proposed (Symons and Johnson, 1997).”

“Self–other representations are also important for developing episodic memory [49] where the sense of ownership becomes an essential aspect of human cognition, with self-ownership bias recognizable at multiple levels of behavior [50].”

“Self-referential information “experienced as strongly related to one’s own person” (Northoff et al., 2006, p. 441) is preferentially attended to and more strongly encoded, producing a well-documented self-bias in memory called the “self-reference effect” (Durbin et al., 2017; Sui & Humphreys, 2015; Symons & Johnson, 1…”

“…internal elaboration of other items associated with the task to the student, or better allows the student to organize the information provided in relation to the student and to each other (Klein and Kihlstrom, 1986; Klein and Loftus, 1988; Symons and Johnson, 1997; Klein, 2012; Turk et al. , 2015).”

“These networks are accessed during self-referential processing, facilitating more methodical and intricate processing than other information processing methods (Keenan et al., 1992; Symons and Johnson, 1997; Klein, 2012; Klein and Nelson, 2014).”

“From a cognitive perspective, the self represents a rich, articulated set of associations that might dominate the implicit interpersonal landscape for this reason (Symons and Johnson 1997).”

“A number of studies have examined the self- reference effect, which states that it is easier to remember or recall information if it is related to one’s self (Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“People are much more likely to retain information when that information is placed in a useful and interesting context that allows students to relate the information to things that they regard as important (Bransford and Johnson 1972; Symons and Johnson 1997).”

“In adults, shorter presentation times during encoding are associated with a stronger SRE (Symons and Johnson, 1997).”

“We suggest that self-reference is culture-invariant because the self-referential effect in memory performance is observed in subjects from different cultures (e.g., in Western cultures, Rogers et al. 1977; Symons and Johnson 1997; Klein et al. 1989; Kelley et al. 2002; in Chinese culture, Zhu and Zhang 2002; Qi and Zh…”

“To determine sample size, we used the meta-analytic average effect size in self-reference studies (Symons and Johnson, 1997, d =0.50) to calculate our planned sample size to attain power=0.80, and alpha=0.05.”

“In a meta-analysis, Symons and Johnson (1997) found that individuals have better memory performance for words studied in the self-reference than other-reference conditions.”

“Research into the self-reference effect has consistently shown that if an individual links material to themselves it is easier for them to recall than if it is linked to something unrelated to them [3].”

“Furthermore, cognitive psychologists have found superior memory for trait adjectives that have been judged for self-descriptiveness, compared to any other judgment—a phenomenon known as the self-reference effect (see Symons & Johnson, 1997 for a metaanalytic review).”

“However, other research argues that the self plays an important role in inferences about other people because knowledge about the self is subject to elaboration and deep processing (Higgins & Bargh, 1987; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“…of stimuli related to the one’s self versus stimuli related to others (see Symons & Johnson, 1997, for a metaanalysis), have been shown to extend to in-group members as well (e.g., Aron, Aron, Tudor, & Nelson, 1991; Sui & Humphreys, 2015; Symons & Johnson, 1997; see also Cadinu & Rothbart, 1996).”

“…(e.g., the Self-Attention Network [SAN]; Humphreys & Sui, 2016) or more elaborate semantic networks concerning the self, allowing for more efficient identification, judgment and decision-making (e.g., Constable, Rajsic, et al., 2019; Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“The effect has been consistently replicated (e.g. Horiuchi, 2008; Klein, 2012; Kuiper & Rogers, 1979; Maki & McCaul, 1985; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“Some of these techniques rely on creating connections between to-be learned material and prior knowledge (Martin & Pressley, 1991; Ozgungor & Guthrie, 2004), oneself (Symons & Johnson, 1997), or mnemonic devices (Putnam, 2015).”

“This is similar to the self-reference effect in information decisions [56,57], where individuals have internalized information about the acceptable positive ratings related to themselves, and they react quicker to products with similar ratings.”

“By capturing experiences shortly after their occurrence, participants ’ memories are less a ff ected by subsequent events or cognitive processes that may in fl uence the accuracy or interpretation of the recollections (Schacter, 1999; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“Additionally, comic books have several other advantages, among which the emotional attachment instilled in the reader in relation to the protagonist stands out as easing the consolidation of imparted information (Farinella, 2018; Symons & Johnson, 1997).”

“These types of results have fueled a debate as to whether the self constitutes a super-ordinate schema that, when activated during processing, makes later recall of the information more likely (e.g., Symons & Johnson, 1997).”