Categorical organization and the self-reference effect: A closer look

First demonstrated by Rogers, Kuiper and Kirker (1977), the self-reference effect pertains to the extremely robust finding that words encoded with reference to the self are better recalled than are words encoded with respect to their meaning.;With a few notable exceptions, the enhanced recall is explained in terms of stimulus elaboration and has led to the inference that the self is involved in the processing of personal information.;Klein and Kihlstrom (1986) hypothesized that categorical organization was confounded with self-reference encoding and that it, rather than stimulus elaboration, was responsible for the enhanced recall. Problems with Klein and Kihlstrom's stimulus materials and the manner in which categorical organization was measured, call into question their findings, which support this hypothesis.;In the present study, when the stimulus word list was comprised of body parts (as was the list of Klein and Kihlstrom), recall results mirrored those found by Klein and Kihlstrom. That is, no self-reference effect was found. When trait adjectives were used there was a self-reference effect, and further recall was found to be positively related to self-concept salience. Categorical organization cannot explain these findings, but stimulus elaboration does so readily.;Similarly, when the actual categories hypothesized by Klein and Kihlstrom to be involved in categorical organization were measured, results failed to support their hypothesis. A post hoc analysis, on the other hand, showed that traits that are salient for the self tended to cluster more during recall than did traits that were not salient for the self. Again, although categorical organization cannot account for these findings, they can be explained by stimulus elaboration.;The present study thus provides further support for stimulus elaboration explanations of the self-reference effect, and suggest that categorical organization is not the causal factor underlying this effect.