INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE GENERATION AND SELF-REFERENCE EFFECTS

Abstract

This thesis explored the individual and combined effects of two well-established memory-enhancing strategies: the generation effect and the self-reference effect. A total of 89 undergraduate participants completed sentence completion tasks that manipulated both generative tasks (generate vs. read) and personal relevance through the use of second-person possessive pronouns (“your” vs. “their”). Memory performance was assessed using both free and cued recall tasks to evaluate how these encoding strategies operate across different forms of relational memory. A 2x2 mixed ANOVA revealed a main effect of generation, with the generation condition recalling significantly more items than the read condition across both memory tests. A smaller but statistically significant main effect of self-reference was also observed, with items from sentences with self pronouns (“your”) being recalled significantly more than items from sentences with other pronouns (“their”). This suggests that even minimal linguistic cues can elicit enhanced encoding when linked to the self. Importantly, the interaction between generation and self-reference was not significant, indicating that these strategies provide additive benefits and can be used concurrently without interference. An exploratory analysis revealed that the generation effect was significantly larger in cued recall compared to free recall, possibly due to stronger cue-target associative encoding. These results contribute to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of memory and support the practical application of combining generative learning with personalized language. The findings have implications for educational and cognitive training contexts, where both strategies may be integrated to enhance memory performance in a variety of learners.