In two studies we investigated the role of self-reference as a mnemonic for prose material. Prior to reading descriptive passages, college students received self-reference, other-reference, linguistic, or control processing instructions. Overall, the self-reference instructions resulted in the greatest amount of recall. This effect generalized across both within-and between-subjects experimental designs. Further, minor changes in the wording of the processing instructions (question vs. perspective format) did not alter the findings. In addition, subjects' responses (yes or no) to the self-reference question were not related to the level of recall. The discussion focuses on theoretical alternatives and outlines directions for future research.
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