Self-discrimination and memory: state orientation and false self-ascription of assigned activities

A new paradigm to investigate the tendency to falsely ascribe to oneself assigned goals (misinformed introjection or self-infiltration) and the better memory of self-chosen than of assigned prospective activities (self-choice effect) is explored. In two experiments, state-oriented subjects showed significantly higher rates of false self-ascriptions of assigned activities than action-oriented subjects did (an individual-difference factor related to volitional efficiency; Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994b), whereas all subjects gave evidence of the self-choice effect. Specific manipulations to reduce and to increase the probability of occurrence of false self-ascriptions were also carried out (an intentional-learning instruction and task interruption, respectively). Finally, a first step was taken to examine the relationship between self-infiltration and the tendency to enact more self-chosen than assigned activities (self-determination).