The self-specificity of the incidental self-reference effect

The incidental self-reference effect (iSRE) refers to enhanced memory for items co-presented with a self- vs. other-relevant cue when the self/other-relevance of the cues is irrelevant to a given task. Previous iSRE studies confounded self-specificity with familiarity by contrasting highly familiar, self-specific cues (e.g., one's own name) with less familiar, non-self cues (e.g., a celebrity's name). The present study sought to disentangle these factors by introducing a highly familiar close other (best friend) as an additional referent. During encoding, participants judged the spatial location of words presented with the name of the self, a close other, or a stranger. They then completed a surprise recognition test and rated each referent's familiarity and self-relevance. Memory was better for words paired with the self than for those paired with a close other, which were in turn better remembered than words paired with a stranger. Participants rated close-other referents as equally familiar as, but less self-relevant than, the self. These findings suggest that self-specificity, or more broadly self-relevance, rather than familiarity, critically drives the iSRE.