Introduction
The concept of self-referencing has been of interest to cognitive psychologists for some time. More recently, researchers have worked to further understand the effects of self-referencing on memory. In particular, the self-referencing effect has been explored across a range of domains, including performance, motivation, and learning (Durbin et al., 2017; Ilenikhena et al., 2021; Kim et al., 2022; Mattavelli et al., 2021; Yin et al., 2018). This literature review provided an overview of studies that examine the self-referencing effect on memory and its relationship to various aspects of psychology.
Discussion
As such, the effects of self-referencing were investigated on performance tasks. To do this, Durbin et al. (2017) used a two-part experiment. In the first part, participants were asked to complete various tasks that involved either self-referencing (e.g., writing a personal story about a given topic) or non-self-referencing (e.g., writing a story about someone else). In the second part, interviewees were asked to complete a series of cognitive tasks (e.g., recall and recognition tasks) (Durbin et al., 2017). Results showed that self-referencing had a positive effect on performance in both short-term and long-term tasks. In general, the findings of Durbin et al. (2017) indicated that self-referencing can be beneficial to performance on cognitive tasks. Additionally, more research was needed to explore the effects of self-referencing in other areas, such as motivation and learning, which will be described in the next paragraph.
The other article explored the effects of self-referencing on motivation. Specifically, Ilenikhena et al. (2021) investigated the relationship between self-referencing and motivation to complete a task. The authors used a between-subjects experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to either a self-referencing condition or a non-self-referencing condition. Results showed that participants in the self-referencing condition were more motivated to complete the task than those in the non-self-referencing condition (Ilenikhena et al., 2021). These findings were essential for understanding how self-referencing can impact a range of psychological phenomena, including performance, motivation, and learning. They suggested that self-referencing can be a powerful tool in helping people improve their performance and be more motivated to complete tasks which leads to the next point described in the following paragraph, self-esteem.
The following article explored the effects of self-referencing on self-esteem. As such, Mattavelli et al. (2021) investigated the relationship between self-referencing and self-esteem. Their results showed that participants in the self-referencing condition had higher self-esteem than those in the non-self-referencing condition (Mattavelli et al., 2021). This finding is consistent with the works of the other studies discussed in this literature review, which suggested that self-referencing can have a positive effect on performance, motivation, and learning. Furthermore, this finding of increased self-esteem further demonstrated the power of self-referencing and suggested that it can be a valuable tool for increasing self-esteem.
Finally, scholars explored the effects of self-referencing on memory. In particular, Yin et al. (2018) used a between-subjects experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to either a self-referencing condition or a non-self-referencing condition. Participants in the self-referencing condition were instructed to relate the memory task to their own life experiences. The findings showed that participants in the self-referencing condition had significantly higher memory performance than those in the non-self-referencing condition. Consequently, the study hypothesis is that all participants – regardless of their condition – will agree that they recall words better when they think about how those words relate to themselves.
Conclusion
To conclude, this review of the literature gives an overview of research that investigates the self-referencing impact on memory and its relevance to many areas of psychology, such as productivity, motivation, and learning. The findings revealed that self-referencing improved performance, motivation, and self-esteem, as well as cognitive functioning. These data implied that self-referencing might be a robust technique for raising self-esteem and memory effectiveness. The study predicted that if participants were engaged in self-rating, they would feel more confident in their recall and more strongly agree that their recall is better than the average participant compared to those who engaged in either friend-rating or President-rating.
References
Durbin, K. A., Mitchell, K. J., & Johnson, M. K. (2017). Source memory that encoding was self-referential: The influence of stimulus characteristics. Memory, 25(9), 1191–1200. Web.
Ilenikhena, G. O., Narmawala, H., Sklenar, A. M., McCurdy, M. P., Gutchess, A. H., & Leshikar, E. D. (2021). Stop shouting at me: The influence of case and Self-Referencing on explicit and implicit memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Web.
Kim, K., Banquer, A. M., Resnik, S. N., Johnson, J. D., & Fernandez, L. (2022). Self-reference and cognitive effort: Source memory for affectively neutral information is impaired following negative compared to positive self-referential processing. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 34(7), 833–845. Web.
Mattavelli, S., Richetin, J., & Perugini, M. (2021). Liking as far as you like yourself: Exploring the self-referencing effect across multiple intersecting regularities and its relationship with self-esteem. Learning and Motivation, 73, 101693. Web.
Yin, X., Ma, Y., Xu, X., & Yang, H. (2018). The effect of self-referencing on memory for different kinds of source information. Memory, 27(4), 519–527. Web.