For example, the "cocktail party effect" notes that people attend to the sound of their names even during other conversation or more prominent, distracting noise.
[13] However, despite the existence of the self-reference effect when considering schemata consistent adjectives, the connection between the self and memory can lead to a larger number of mistakes in recognition, commonly referred to as false alarms.
[12] Expanding on this, Strube et al. (1986) found that false alarms occurred more for self-schema consistent content, presumably because the presence of such words in the schema makes them more accessible in memory.
They noted that the pattern of making correct decisions more rapidly did not hold when considering words that countered a person's self-schema, presumably because they were difficult to integrate into memory due to lack of a preexisting structure.
Their results suggest that self-awareness leads to increased sensitivity to the situationally defined meanings of behavior, and therefore organizes the individual's understanding of the social environment.
In later research, Hull and colleagues examined the associations between self-referential encoding, self-consciousness and the extent to which a stimulus is consistent with self-knowledge.
[16] It is known that situational and dispositional factors may activate certain pools of knowledge, moving them into working memory, and guiding the processing of certain stimulus information.
[16] Three experiments conducted by Hull and colleagues provided evidence that a manipulation of accessible self-knowledge impacts self-referent encoding based on the self-relevance of such information, individual differences in the accessibility of self-knowledge (self-consciousness) impacts perception, and a mediation relationship exists between self-consciousness and individual differences in self-referential encoding.
Strube and colleagues argued that this could be a result of the fact that schema-consistent information is more easily remembered and the ease with which past successes and failures are recalled, determined by self-schema, would impact attributions.
This experiment validated the strength of self-reference as an encoding method, and indicated it developed a stronger memory trace than the semantic task.
Results from experiments that differentiated between these types of self-referential encoding found that they both produced better recall than semantic tasks, and neither was more advantageous than the other.
[23] Structural, phonemic and semantic tasks within the depth of processing paradigm require words to be considered individually, and lend themselves to an elaborative approach.
Ultimately, if the research is suggesting that the self has superior elaborative or organizational properties, information related to the self should be more easily remembered and recalled.
[26] Supporting these findings, it has been shown that damage to the mPFC is connected to impairments with self-reflection, introspection and daydreaming, as well as social competence, but not other areas of functioning.
When participants were asked to judge adjectives based in whether or not they were self-descriptive, it was noted that the more self-relevant the trait, the stronger the activation of the mPFC.
[2] One study showed that the more activity in the mPFC during self-referential judgments, the more likely the word was to be remembered on a subsequent surprise memory test.
Finding support clear cut circuits that have high levels of activation when cognitive and emotional aspects of self-reflection are present.
[27] The caudate nucleus has not been associated with self-reference before, however, Fossati and colleagues found activity while participants were retrieving self-relevant trait adjectives.
On the other side, people support the arguments described above that suggest there is no special structure, but instead, the self-reference effect is simply a part of the standard depth of processing hierarchy.
Since the overall hypothesis is the same for both sides of the debate, that self-relevant material leads to enhanced memory, it is difficult to test them using strictly behavioral measures.
Therefore, if the self-reference effect works the same way, as part of the depth of processing hierarchy, the same brain region should be activated when judging traits related to the self.
While not able to completely settle the debate over the foundation of self-referential processing, studies on the neurological aspect of personality trait judgments did lead to a related, significant result.
[11] Second, the previous research discussed suggests that the self-reference effect is due to some combination of organizational, elaborative, mental cueing or evaluative properties of self-referential encoding tasks.
[11] Despite finding evidence of a group-reference effect, Johnson and colleagues pointed out that people identify with numerous groups, each with unique characteristics.
Other research included gender (males and females) and religion (Jewish) as the reference groups and the group-reference effect on memory was not as evident.
[11] Ultimately, the group-reference effect provides evidence to explain the tendency to notice or pay attention to and remember statements made in regard to our home when traveling in a foreign place.
Some of the most common characteristics of individuals with ASDs include impairments with social functioning, language and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviors and restricted interests.
When asked to describe their daily experiences, responses from individuals on the autism spectrum tended to focus more on physical descriptions rather than mental and emotional states.
In regards to their social interactions and behavior differences, it is thought that these individuals lack top down control, and therefore, their bottom up decisions remain unchecked.
[37] The results from the study done by Derry and Kuiper supported Beck's theory that a negative self-schema is present in people, especially those with depressive disorder.