title: A role for self-referential processing in tasks requiring participants to imagine survival on the savannah.
abstract: This paper examines the role of self-reference as a possible mechanism underlying the superior recall found with survival processing. I suggest that previous failures to find comparable recall with self-referential encoding may be due to neglecting to ensure that task instructions require episodic retrieval. The studies reported herein show that when instructions explicitly request episodic retrieval, self-referential processing promotes recall that is statistically equivalent to that found with survival processing tasks. I conclude that the role of self-referential processing remains a viable component of the excellent memory produced by survival encoding instructions.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. klein@psych.ucsb.edu
authors.forename: Stanley B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Klein
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students; D013534:Survival / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities; D014825:Vocabulary