Effect of context on recall of self-referent and group-referent words in individuals from individualistic or collectivistic cultures

Researchers have consistently found that information encoded with reference to the self has a memory advantage over information encoded with reference to other properties ("Self-Reference Effect") (Rogers, Kuiper & Kirker, 1977). Using a variety of different target groups (e.g., one's family), Johnson et al. (2002) found evidence for a group-reference effect in that encoding information in reference to a social group resulted in the same memory advantage as information stored in reference to the individual self. The self- and group-reference effects may be impacted by one's culture (individualistic or collectivistic). People from individualistic and collectivistic cultures possess different cognitive processing styles (Cousins, 1989). In the present study, 113 participants (41 categorized as collectivistic and 72 categorized as individualistic) were asked to encode a series of trait adjectives under self-reference, group-reference, or semantic tasks and this was followed by a surprise free recall test. Half encoded the words with tasks referring to them in general and half encoded with tasks referring to a specific context. They also completed the Singelis Self-Construal Scale (1994) and the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale (2000).;The first goal of the present study was to examine the influence of culture on self- and group-reference effects. One quality embedded within a collectivist's self-concept is a sensitivity to social context (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Kuhnen, Hannover & Schubert, 2001). Thus, the second goal was to specifically examine the impact of the context condition (abstract or situation-specific) on the recall of self- and group-referent words. It was hypothesized that within the abstract condition the individualistic sample would demonstrate stronger self- and group-reference effects than the collectivistic sample. It was further hypothesized that in the situation-specific condition, collectivists would recall more words than in the abstract condition and display the same self- and group-reference effects as individualists.;Results revealed an effect for culture on the pattern of recall. Within the individualistic sample, recall was higher under the group-reference than under the semantic task while recall under self- and group-reference did not differ and recall under semantic and self-reference task did not differ. Within the collectivistic sample, recall under the three encoding tasks did not differ. Context had the effect of lowering recall under the self- and group-reference tasks for both groups rather than bringing the recall of the collectivistic sample up to the level of the individualistic sample. Possible explanations for the effect of culture and context are discussed.