Psychological Development and Education ›› 2011, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (6): 584-590.

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Self-Reference Effect in children’s self-other differentiation

ZHOU Ai-bao1, XIA Rui-xue1, SHI Zhan1, DUAN Bao-jun2, SUI Jie3   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070;
    2. Department of Education, Hexi University, Zhangye, Gansu 734000;
    3. Department of Psychology, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, Jilin 130024
  • Online:2011-11-15 Published:2011-11-15

Abstract: Research on when children can show self-reference effect has significant meaning for the exploration of self-other differentiation.This research was composed of three experiments,with children of age 4-9 as participants,to explore the age stage that self-reference effect appeared.We manipulated two types of self-awareness that were elicited by self-ownership and self-referential evaluation:object-based awareness and concept-based awareness.They were measured in a belonging categorization task(Experiment 1)and a trait evaluation task (Experiment 2 and 3),separately.The findings revealed:(a)Children as young as age five displayed an advantage in remembering their own belongings relative to other's belongings,which suggested at this stage children can differentiate self from others in the object-based condition;(b)Children aged seven showed self-advantage in remembering the trait adjectives evaluated in reference to themselves relative to familiar others,which suggested children can differentiate self from others in the concept-based condition.These results demonstrated a clear dissociable contribution between self-ownership and self-reference evaluation in young children's differentiating self from others.

Key words: self-reference effect, children, self-other differentiation

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1
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