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memory
You remember information best when it relates to you.
The self-reference effect demonstrates that humans have superior recall for information processed in relation to their own life and traits.
In a 1977 study, participants remembered words significantly better when asked if they described themselves rather than if they were printed in a certain font. Your brain treats personal relevance as a primary category for encoding information. You effectively turn facts into memories by attaching them to your own identity.
You are the center of your own memory storage system.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker, 1977
- What the check found
- The Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker (1977) study is a seminal, widely cited paper in memory research that established this effect, which has been replicated extensively.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.