The Roles Of Encoding And Self-Construal In The Self-Reference Effect

By using R/K judgment, the aim of this present study was to investigate encoding and the self-construal playing roles in the self-reference effect and the group-reference effect.In the first experiment, by adding incidental encoding to the self-referencing paradigm, the present study investigated memory of Chinese college students for words in explicit and incidental encoding. The results were as follows:in the participants' R scores there were a self-reference effect and a mother-reference effect both in explicit encoding and in incidental encoding; the words related to the self were typically remembered better than the words related to mother; the memory performance in explicit encoding was significantly higher than that in incidental encoding; self-reference effect and mother-reference effect were found in R response only.In the second experiment, four reference conditions (Self, Mother, Best friend, Luxun) was arranged, and self-construal was measured by self-construal scale, so as to investigate the role of the self-construal in the self-reference effect. The results were as follows:a self-reference effect and a mother-reference effect were found in interdependent group; a self-reference effect and a friend-reference effect were found in independent group, but the memory performance under self-referencing condition was significantly higher than that under friend-referencing condition.In the third experiment, four reference conditions (Self, Schoolmate, Chinese, American) was arranged, and self-construal was measured by self-construal scale, so as to investigate the role of the self-construal in the group-reference effect. The results were as follows:a self-reference effect and a schoolmate-reference effect were found in interdependent group; a self-reference effect was found in independent group, but a group-reference effect was not found.These finding suggested that:(1) when it comes to memory enhancement, the self would not need directed evaluative processing; simple incidental presentation would suffice. (2) future research related to the self-reference effect and the group-reference effect should consider the individual differences in self-construal.