An Experimental Probe Of Different Cultural Priming Methods And Self-reference Effect

Rogers et al. found (1977) that information actively related to self was better recalled, this mnemonic superiority phenomenon was labeled Self-reference effect (abbreviated as SRE). Since then, this effect has received considerable attention, and became a popular field in memory, many studies appeared, and the mechanism of SRE was also explored. The methods developed from the Rogers' classic paradigm (Self-Descriptiveness Judgments) to some new methods, such as Autobiographical Retrieval, Self-generated Procedure etc. The Self-Descriptiveness Judgments are based on the Depth of processing paradigm (DOP) which was first advanced by Craik & Lockhart(1972), Rogers introduced DOP into the realm of the self, and added the reference-self group to others processing groups. The results showed that different processing groups had different memory performance, namely, the result of reference-self group was superior to other groups. Similar results were obtained by other research methods and other experimental designs. Recently, some SRE researches are carried out by domestic scholar Zhuying (2001) and his partners (2001), they also took this classic paradigm, but few other methods were used.The research about SRE in early days mainly focused on the internal processing mechanism of SRE, some different theory hypotheses have been put forward, such as explanations of Self-schemata, Elaboration, Organization, and Dual processes. More researchers have accepted the latter. However, because various kinds of hypotheses all have empirical evidence to support, and few new SRE studies appeared we could easily conclude that the field has reached an impasse in terms of explaining why the SRE occurred (C. S. Symonsl997).Since the end of 1990s, SRE researches have gradually expanded to two areas. One is functional neuroimaging study of self-reference, in order to explore the self location in brain through the Functional neural imaging techniques (Craik, F.I.M., Moroz, T. M, 1999) .One of the main research achievements is Hemispheric Encoding/Retrieval Asymmetry Model, abbreviated as HERA Model. The other is the study that combinesself-concept differences between east and west with self reference (Conway, 2000; Zhuying, 2001; Liuxinming, 2001; Huoyan, 2001 etc.), uses "Remember", "Knowing" response, i.e. R/K responses to distinguish the components within recognition which was introduced by Conway (1995). This is also what will be explored in the present research. In this field, some researchers (Huoyan, 2001) used the cultural priming methods which originated from personality research field (Ying-yi Hong, Morris, M.W. et al, 2001). Through an analysis to a large amount of pervious researches, we find that though SRE has been studied for more than two decades, there are still many arguments about the existence of SRE and its robustness. As for the research methods, there are two methods are mostly used, namely Rogers' classic paradigm and Bower's Autobiographical Retrieval (asking participants to try recalling personal experience that the trait words cause). The two methods were regarded equally because they produced similar SRE results in some early studies. However, Klein (1989) found the two methods had different processing course. But few researchers used both of them in one experiment to clarify it, and all domestic researches have only taken the classic paradigm, i.e. Self-Descriptiveness Judgments. In the studies about SRE under different culture background, researchers have introduced the cultural priming methods, namely, picture priming method, which was firstly originated from social attribute field. According a general survey of self-concept priming researches, we found that many a methods could be drawn lessons from, such as "describing priming", "difference priming" etc. But do these methods really prime the "Dependant-self or "interdependent-self? Are there any differences in the intensity of priming effect? These are still some problems puzzle us. In the present research, we tried to combine some kinds of priming method...