The group-reference effect and soldiers' recognition memory

Previous research has consistently found that the self-reference effect (SRE) is equal to, or stronger than, the group-reference effect (GRE) for memory performance. The military strongly emphasises group identity; this study investigated whether the GRE was stronger than the SRE for soldiers. Soldiers were recruited to participate in Experiments 1 and Experiment 2. Experiment 1 revealed that recognition was better under the group-reference condition than the self-reference condition. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, with the exception that the recognition test required participants to use "remember" / "know" / "guess" judgments. The results were consistent with those of Experiment 1, that is, the GRE contributed to better recognition than the SRE, but the difference was statistically significant only for "know" responses. Using a less cohesive group (university students) as participants, Experiment 3 found that the GRE was not superior to the SRE for memory recognition, which indicated that the results of Experiments 1 and 2 were exclusive to soldiers. The findings suggest that soldiers' sense of self might be unique, and that an ingroup sense of self might be dominant for soldiers.

Self-reference recollection effect and its relation to theory of mind: An investigation in healthy controls and schizophrenia

This study explores the links between the Self-Reference Effect (SRE) and Theory of Mind (ToM) in typical adults and patients with schizophrenia. Participants were assessed with a self-referential memory paradigm investigating the mnemonic effect of both semantic and episodic self-reference with a recognition task associated with the Remember/Know/Guess paradigm. They also completed a self-descriptive scale and shortened versions of the attribution of intention task and the reading the mind in the eyes test as measures of cognitive and affective ToM respectively. Unlike typical adults, the patients showed no semantic SRRE (correct recognition associated with remembering), and there was no episodic SRRE and no SRE (on the number of correct recognitions) in either group. Semantic SRRE was correlated with the affective ToM in patients and with the positivity of the self-concept in the healthy group. We discuss that patients and typical adults use different strategies during self and other-reflection.