Perhaps the world does revolve around you

You may be happy to hear that the world revolves around you a lot more than you might think. I mean, seriously, did you know we are more likely to remember new class content if we relate it back to ourselves? Do not fret, this does not make you a selfish or egotistical person, but rather is part of what is known as the self-reference effect.

This effect explains why when you meet an individual that has the same birthday as you, you are very likely to remember it (unless you tend to forget your own birthday…). Or why I still remember my Club Penguin login information 10 years after creating it, as it involved a combination of my personal information. When it comes to information we want to remember for the long run, such as passwords, pins, and security questions, we tend to utilize information that is easily accessible to our brain, which typically involves personal data such as birthdays, age, names, and different preferences. This mainly includes our own personal information, however, it is also helpful with the information of the people close to us, such as family and friends.

The self-reference effect is the idea that we tend to pay more attention to information that is personally relevant. This can be explained by the fact that we hold our memories and long-term knowledge in different “brain folders” known as schemas, which are readily available at the very front of retrieval. Our self-concept (how you define yourself), mannerisms, personality traits, social identities, and self-knowledge can all be placed in this broad self-schema “folder” which is at the forefront of our minds. A self-schema consists of the beliefs someone has about themself, which serves as a guide to process related information. Considering we spend quite some time elaborating and expanding our “self” folder, it only makes sense that this information is readily available.

Placing new information in our self-schema by relating it to ourselves actually results in an engaging and deeper memory processing level, making it more likely to encode in long-term memory and be remembered in the future. While learning new information, the self-reference effect involves a more active processing where perhaps episodic memory is involved. If new information provided to you prompts you to remember a specific event that occurred to you, then you will be able to associate what you have learned with a previous memory and overall pay more attention. This results in deeper processing, and therefore this new information will be easier to actively recall and retrieve when needed.

The most important part is to think about how this new information you are learning applies to your own life. For instance, if you are sitting in a psychology course learning about mood-congruent memories, try to think about a specific example where this has occurred to you. Perhaps in a discussion between you and a friend where you both recalled happy memories which sparked even more happy memories.   

Next time you are sitting in a course with difficult information to digest, remember the self-reference effect and how you can utilize it to your advantage in order to succeed.