The self as a memory system: Powerful, but ordinary.

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Abstract
This article provides a research model of the process by which personal and social knowledge serves as a nucleus around which new knowledge is easily accumulated. In 4 experiments, Ss produced friends' names and then constructed sentences, each including a name together with an assigned (target) noun. Unexpected recall tests showed greatly superior memory for target nouns used in sentences with own friends' (self-generated) names vs. nouns used in sentences with others' friends' (other-generated) names. This "self-generation" effect was robustly observed across several procedural variations. Computer simulations of Experiments 3 and 4 supported the assumption that the self-generation procedure's effect on free recall of target nouns is mediated by retrieval of the self-generated names with which the nouns are sentence-paired. Together with other recent findings, these results indicate that powerful mnemonic effects associated with the self can be understood in terms of familiar, ordinary memory processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

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