Switch costs in the self-memory system

Two experiments on undergraduates examined the idea that the working self operates as an executive structure to constrain and co-ordinate the generation of autobiographical memories. A switching task was used, in which participants completed an autobiographical memory fluency task, using either alternating self-image cues or the same cue repeatedly. In two experiments, there was a clear switch cost, whereby participants took longer to generate autobiographical memories when alternating between two different self-images. In the second experiment, there was also a similar cost associated with generating names and places from two separate domains, home and university. Taken together, these experiments support the idea that autobiographical memories and personal semantics are organized into a hierarchical structure, which can be probed using executive-function-like tasks. In particular, the task switch cost points to retrieval systems being geared up to retrieving memories according to the current goals of the self. In terms of autobiographical retrieval, the self can thus be thought of as a mental structure that is subject to dynamic patterns of excitation and interference.