Self-imagining enhances recognition memory in memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage.
OBJECTIVE
The ability to imagine an elaborative event from a personal perspective relies on several cognitive processes that may potentially enhance subsequent memory for the event, including visual imagery, semantic elaboration, emotional processing, and self-referential processing. In an effort to find a novel strategy for enhancing memory in memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage, we investigated the mnemonic benefit of a method we refer to as self-imagining-the imagining of an event from a realistic, personal perspective.


METHODS
Fourteen individuals with neurologically based memory deficits and 14 healthy control participants intentionally encoded neutral and emotional sentences under three instructions: structural-baseline processing, semantic processing, and self-imagining.


RESULTS
Findings revealed a robust "self-imagination effect (SIE)," as self-imagination enhanced recognition memory relative to deep semantic elaboration in both memory-impaired individuals, F(1, 13) = 32.11, p < .001, η2 = .71; and healthy controls, F(1, 13) = 5.57, p < .05, η2 = .30. In addition, results indicated that mnemonic benefits of self-imagination were not limited by severity of the memory disorder nor were they related to self-reported vividness of visual imagery, semantic processing, or emotional content of the materials.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that the SIE may depend on unique mnemonic mechanisms possibly related to self-referential processing and that imagining an event from a personal perspective makes that event particularly memorable even for those individuals with severe memory deficits. Self-imagining may thus provide an effective rehabilitation strategy for individuals with memory impairment.
Grilli
Matthew D
MD
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. mdgrilli@email.arizona.edu
Glisky
Elizabeth L
EL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019018:Imagery, Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*