What's in Self-Referential Imagining?

• Main Author: Adler, Ira R.
• Language: en
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/271612

The combination of memory-enhancing processes of imagining and of self-reference has been shown to improve memory function, the Self-Imagining Effect (SIE), in healthy subjects and in Persons with neurological damage resulting from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Prior studies Have instructed participants to "imagine yourself' but have not confirmed that self-referential Information is being accessed in self-imagining. The current study investigated the content of Self-referential imagining which may mediate the SIE advantage. Participants, both healthy Persons and persons who had sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and suffer memory Impairment, were instructed to imagine themselves and an "other-person" interacting with various objects and to simultaneously describe their imaginings. The recorded imaginings were Scored for descriptive (location, agent, event and perception/emotion) and referential (self, other Specific, and general) elements. Findings suggest that self-imagining does access self-referential Information and is more content-rich than other-person imagining. The elements found in self-imagining were representative of episodic-like information. Other-person imagining, while not as content-rich, contained proportionately similar descriptive elements. The study provides a Better understanding of the salient features of self-imagining and may elucidate the role of self-referential Knowledge in mnemonic strategies in persons with neurological damage due to TBI.