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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 9, 2026

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm
06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

The self-reference effect on memory in early childhood.

Sheila J Cunningham1, Joanne L Brebner, Francis Quinn

  • 1University of Abertay Dundee; University of Aberdeen.

Child Development
|July 30, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Children as young as 4 show the self-reference effect, remembering objects better when linked to themselves. This early memory advantage for self-relevant information develops sooner than previously thought.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • The self-reference effect (SRE) describes memory's bias towards self-related information.
  • Early childhood development of SRE is not well understood.
  • Previous research often used abstract encoding tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the early developmental emergence of the self-reference effect.
  • To explore SRE using a concrete encoding paradigm in young children.
  • To determine if SRE influences recognition and source memory in early childhood.

Main Methods:

  • Employed a concrete encoding paradigm with self- or other-images paired with objects.
  • Tested 4- to 6-year-old children across three studies (N=164 total).
  • Utilized varied tasks: object desirability judgments, source memory, and location recall.

Main Results:

  • Children demonstrated a significant self-reference effect in recognition memory.
  • The SRE was observed consistently across all three studies and tasks.
  • Self-paired items were recalled and sourced more accurately than other-paired items.

Conclusions:

  • The self-reference effect emerges early in development, by age 4.
  • Concrete encoding tasks effectively reveal SRE in young children.
  • Findings suggest robust mechanisms for encoding self-relevant information from an early age.