The Mnemic Neglect Effect In Middle School Students: A Study Based On Two Fundamental Dimensions Of Social Cognition

The Mnemic Neglect Effect discovered by Sedikides et al.refers to a selective forgetting of negative information that threatens the core beliefs of the self.Specifically,when the information involves self-core personality traits,the recall of negative information is significantly lower than that of positive information,and the recall of negative information involving self-core personality traits is also lower the amount of recall of similar negative information involving others.When the information involved borderline personality traits related to the self,there was no significant difference in the recall of positive and negative information.The intrinsic motivation mechanism of mnemic neglect effect includes self-protection motivation and self-improvement motivation.Self-protection belongs to avoidance motivation and self-enhancement belongs to tendency motivation.The typical characteristics of mnemic neglect effect are that individuals avoid self-threatening information,shallow-level processing of selfrelated core negative information,and deep processing of self-related core positive information.Since 2001,The Mnemic Neglect Effect has been confirmed by a large number of studies.However,some studies also show that factors such as the nature of the trait material,the presentation time of the material,the way of recalling the task,and differences in individual traits can all affect the appearance of the mnemic neglect effect.In some cases,the mnemic neglect effect will be reversed,that is,subjects recall more core negative information.Under certain conditions,the stability of the mnemic neglect effect will be disturbed.Most of the subjects in the existing studies on the mnemic neglect effect belong to adults,and few researchers have explored whether there is the mnemic neglect effect in middle school students with fluctuating development of selfesteem.Several studies have found that the development of self-concept and selfesteem in middle school students generally fluctuates.Specifically,the development of self-concept generally follows a U-shaped curve,while the development of self-esteem levels may show a steady rise or a first decline and then a rise.Relevant research also finds that when faced with the same amount of feedback,the individuals who have high self-esteem will perceive more positive feedback,while individuals with low selfesteem will perceive more negative feedback.Therefore,whether the mnemic neglect effect will appear in the group of middle school students with the fluctuating development of self-concept and self-esteem also needs to be further verified.In addition,According to the theory of two fundamental dimensions of social cognition,the warmth dimension and the competence dimension are the two fundamental dimensions of personality traits,and most of the personality traits reflected in the materials in the vast majority of the mnemic neglect effect studies belong to the personality traits of the warmth dimension,and rarely involve the personality traits of the competence dimension.Previous studies have also shown that the level of individual self-esteem is closely related to the characteristics of the competence dimension.Therefore,in order to maintain their self-concept and self-esteem levels,individuals may exhibit the mnemic neglect effect when confronted with personality trait material in the competence dimension.Therefore,the research content of this paper mainly focuses on whether middle school students will show the mnemic neglect effect when facing personality trait materials of the warmth dimension and the competence dimension respectively.The subjects selected in Study 1 were junior high school students,and the subjects selected in Study 2 were senior high school students.Study 1 and Study 2 adopted a four-factor mixed experimental design with trait dimension(warmth,competence)× reference object(self,others)× trait type(core,peripheral)× valence(positive,negative).Trait dimension and reference object are between-subject variables,and trait type and valence are within-subject variables.The results of study 1 showed that the main effect of trait type was significant among the junior middle school students.This indicates that the recall rate of core trait information is significantly higher than that of marginal trait information.In the secondorder interaction,the interaction effect of trait dimension × trait type was significant,which indicated that the recall rate of information about core traits was significantly higher than that of information about marginal traits under the conditions of ability dimension and enthusiasm dimension.The interaction effect of trait type × reference object was significant,which indicated that the recall rate of core trait information was significantly higher than that of marginal trait information in both self-condition and stranger condition.The interaction effect of trait type × valence was significant,which indicated that the recall rate of core positive information was significantly higher than that of core negative information and marginal positive information,and the recall rate of core negative information was significantly higher than that of marginal negative information.In the third-order interaction,the interaction effect of trait dimension ×reference object × trait type was significant,which indicated that under the conditions of enthusiasm dimension and ability dimension,the recall rate of core information was significantly higher than that of marginal information.The results of study 2 showed that the main effect of trait type was significant among the high school freshman,which indicated that the recall rate of core trait information was significantly higher than that of marginal trait information.In the second-order interaction,the interaction of trait type × reference object was significant,which indicated that the recall rate of core trait information was significantly higher than that of marginal trait information under both self-condition and stranger condition.The interaction effect of trait type × valence was significant,which indicated that the recall rate of core positive information was significantly higher than that of core negative information and marginal positive information.In the third-order interaction,the interaction effect of trait dimension × reference object × valence was significant,which indicated that under the enthusiasm dimension,the recall rate of positive information was significantly higher than that of negative information in the self-group.The interaction effect of reference object × trait type × valence was significant,which indicated that the recall rate of core positive information was significantly higher than that of core negative information in the self-group.Similar to previous findings on adult subjects,this study found the mnemic neglect effect among the high school freshman.In addition,this study did not find the mnemic neglect effect among the junior middle school student.Combined with the relevant research results on the development of self-concept,this paper finds that there is no mnemic neglect effect in the junior middle school student whose self-concept development tends to decline,but there is the mnemic neglect effect in the high school freshman whose self-concept tends to rise steadily.In addition,the mnemic neglect effect only appeared in the group of the high school freshman under the warmth dimension.There was no the mnemic neglect effect in the high school freshman under the competence dimension and the junior middle school student under the warmth and competence dimension.There may be two reasons why the subjects did not show the mnemic neglect effect in the competence dimension: First,they were affected by the plasticity of the trait itself under the competence dimension,which led to the trait material exceeding the boundary conditions of the mnemic neglect effect;Second,in the experimental paradigm of the mnemic neglect effect,subjects are always in the role of receivers/observers,and their emotions,cognitions and behaviors will be dominated by warmth,and subjects may pay more attention to other people’s behavioral intentions.Not much attention is paid to judgments about individual abilities.