Divided attention selectively impairs memory for self-relevant information

Abstract

Citation: Turk, D. J., Brady-van den Bos, M., Collard, P., Gillespie-Smith, K., Conway, M.A. & Cunningham, S.J. (2013). Divided attention selectively impairs memory for self-relevant information. Memory and Cognition, 41(4), pp. 503-510. doi: 10.3758/s13421-012-0279-0 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent AbstractInformation that is relevant to self tends to be remembered more than information relating to other people, but the role of attention in eliciting this 'selfreference effect' is unclear. The present study assessed the importance of attention using an ownership paradigm, which requires participants to encode items under conditions of imagined ownership by themselves or another participant. Previous work has established that this paradigm elicits a robust self-reference effect, with more 'self-owned' items being remembered than 'other-owned' items. Attentional resource availability was manipulated using divided attention tasks at encoding (Expt.1) and during a subsequent Remember-Know recognition test (Expt. 2). A significant self-reference effect in Remember responses emerged under full attention conditions, but dividing attention at either encoding or test eliminated the memory advantage for self-owned items. These findings are discussed in relation to the nature of self-referential cognition and the importance of attentional resource input at both encoding and retrieval in the creation and manifestation of the self-reference effect in memory.

Simulation-Based Mentalizing Generates a “proxy” Self-Reference Effect in Memory

“…We observed a pattern of results which confirms that simulating another individual's object choices based on one's own preference is associated with enhanced recollection of those objects. Specifically, we found that the ability to judge which of two previously seen (hence equally familiar) visually similar objects had previously been picked was enhanced for objects belonging to self vs. others, replicating and extending prior work using the ownership paradigm (Cunningham et al, 2008;Cunningham, van den Bos, & Turk, 2011;Serbun, Shih and Gutchess, 2010;. Critically, we also found that recollection of picked objects was significantly higher for objects belonging to the similar vs. dissimilar other.…”

The ubiquitous self: what the properties of self‐bias tell us about the self

“…35,36 However, not all the evidence indicates that selfstimuli are processed independently of attention. Turk et al 37 reported that divided attention abolished the self-advantage effect in memory, though participants remembered more items after self-ownership judgments compared with otherownership judgments when full attention was allocated. In this case, divided attention may disrupt elaborative encoding to self-referential items, 16,38 reducing the self-advantage.…”

That looks familiar: attention allocation to familiar and unfamiliar faces in children with autism spectrum disorder

“…Indeed, it is proposed that all information related to the self, is 'special' and demands preferential processing (Bargh 1982;Turk, et al, 2011;Turk, et al, 2013).…”