In this review, the authors examine the basis for the mnemonic superiority that results from relating material to the self. A meta-analysis confirms the expected self-reference effect (SRE) in memory, with self-referent encoding strategies yielding superior memory relative to both semantic and otherreferent encoding strategies. Consistent with theory and research that suggest self-reference (SR) produces both organized and elaborate processing, the SRE was smaller (a) when SR is compared with other-reference (OR) rather than semantic encoding and (b) when the comparison tasks promote both organization and elaboration. Thus, the SRE appears to result primarily because the self is a well-developed and often-used construct that promotes elaboration and organization of encoded information. The authors discuss the implications of these and other findings for theories of the SRE and for future research.Throughout the history of psychology, researchers have used the self as a central part of their explanations of various phenomena (see Banaji & Prentice, 1994;G. T. Greenwald & Pratkanis, 1984;and James, 1890). A large body of research suggests that the self-structure is unique, relative to other concepts (e.g., those about other people; see Kihlstrom et al., 1988;Markus, 1977;and Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977), in its motivational and affective implications as well as in its structure and content. Social psychologists have long posited an important affective role for the self-concept (e.g., C. W. Sherif, Sherif, & Nebergall, 1965;M. Sherif & Cantril, 1947). More recently, appraisal theories of emotion have emphasized the phenomenological importance of the self in the interpretation of events and the resulting effect on emotions (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). From a motivational standpoint, examples of the self's pervasive influence abound. For example, the tendency to attribute another person's behavior to dispositional factors but one's own behavior to situational factors presumably occurs because the self dominates one's phenomenal perspective (Ross & Nisbett, 1991;Storms, 1973). Similarly, both self-serving biases and defense mechanisms have been attributed to self-protective or self-enhancing

This study examined how persuasion relates to structural characteristics of attitudes, including the number and supportiveness of initial beliefs as well as the widths of latitudes of rejection. As predicted, the tendency for strong arguments to persuade more than weak arguments was more pronounced for message recipients who retrieved more beliefs relative to those who retrieved fewer beliefs. Also, when initial beliefs supported the proposal, high belief-retrieval subjects were more persuaded than low-belief retrieval subjects, but this relation also held when initial beliefs opposed the proposal. Also as predicted, wide latitudes of rejection produced resistance to persuasion when the message position was counter attitudinal but not when it was proattitudinal, and this pattern was pronounced when subjects had many beliefs. Other analyses suggested that the persuasive effects of belief retrieval are due not to differential actual knowledge but rather to an issue-specific motivational advantage.

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