Self-Imagining, Recognition Memory, and Prospective Memory in Memory-Impaired Individuals with Neurological Damage

Abstract

The present study investigated the reliability and robustness of a new mnemonic strategy - self-imagination - in a group of memory-impaired individuals with neurological damage. Despite severe memory deficits, almost all of the participants demonstrated a self-imagination effect (SIE) for recognition memory in study 1. Moreover, the ability to benefit from self-imagination was not affected by the severity of the memory deficit. In study 3, more than half of the participants showed a SIE on a task of event-based prospective memory. The data from study 2 suggest the SIE is not attributable to semantic processing or emotional processing and indicate that self-imagination is distinct from other mnemonic strategies. Overall the findings from the present study implicate self-imagination as a new and effective mnemonic strategy. The data also indicate that when it comes to memory there is something special about processing information in relation to the self.