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The Self-Imagination Effect: Benefits of a Self-Referential Encoding Strategy on Cued Recall in Memory-Impaired Individuals with Neurological Damage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

Matthew D. Grilli  and
Elizabeth L. Glisky
Matthew D. Grilli*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Elizabeth L. Glisky
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Matthew D. Grilli, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, 1503 E. University Blvd., P.O. Box 210068, Tucson, AZ 85721. E-mail: mdgrilli@email.arizona.edu
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Abstract

Knowledge of oneself is preserved in many memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage. Therefore, cognitive strategies that capitalize on mechanisms related to the self may be particularly effective at enhancing memory in this population. The present study investigated the effect of “self-imagining,” imagining an event from a personal perspective, on short and long delayed cued recall in memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage. Sixteen patients intentionally encoded word pairs under four separate conditions: visual imagery, semantic elaboration, other person imagining, and self-imagining. The results revealed that self-imagining led to better performance than other-imagining, semantic elaboration, and visual imagery. Furthermore, the “self-imagination effect” (SIE) was preserved after a 30-min delay and was independent of memory functioning. These findings indicate that self-imagining provides a mnemonic advantage in brain-injured individuals, even those with relatively poor memory functioning, and suggest that self-imagining may tap into mnemonic mechanisms related to the self. (JINS, 2011, 17, 929–933)

Keywords

ImaginationSelfMemory disordersMemory rehabilitationEpisodic memoryBrain injury
Type
Brief Communications
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 17 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 929 - 933
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2011

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