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Goal-directed processing of self-relevant information is associated with less cognitive interference than the processing of information about other people

Tacikowski, Pawel ; Freiburghaus, Tove LU orcid and Ehrsson, Henrik H. (2017) In Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 68. p.93-100
Abstract

Goal-directed mental processes focused on oneself often co-occur with goal-directed mental processes focused on other people or objects. However, little is known about the mechanisms of this fundamental type of cognitive interaction. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of cognitive interference associated with self-related processing compared with other-related processing. In two separate experiments, we found that an additional letter-case task interfered with self-recognition significantly less than with the recognition of famous and unknown others. This principal finding was consistent across the accuracy and latency of the participants' responses and across different categories of autobiographical stimuli. Together,... (More)

Goal-directed mental processes focused on oneself often co-occur with goal-directed mental processes focused on other people or objects. However, little is known about the mechanisms of this fundamental type of cognitive interaction. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of cognitive interference associated with self-related processing compared with other-related processing. In two separate experiments, we found that an additional letter-case task interfered with self-recognition significantly less than with the recognition of famous and unknown others. This principal finding was consistent across the accuracy and latency of the participants' responses and across different categories of autobiographical stimuli. Together, these results suggest that the goal-directed processing of self-related stimuli is relatively effortless and that it could easily co-occur with additional mental tasks. Implications for models of access to self-concept and models of cognitive interference are discussed.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Automatic processing, Cognitive interference, Controlled processing, Self-concept
in
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
volume
68
pages
93 - 100
publisher
Academic Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:84975709106
ISSN
0022-1031
DOI
10.1016/j.jesp.2016.05.007
language
English
LU publication?
no
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2016 The Authors.
id
c2c31fb4-12fb-4cc6-9c60-25206260295f
date added to LUP
2026-04-23 09:29:15
date last changed
2026-04-25 03:26:57
@article{c2c31fb4-12fb-4cc6-9c60-25206260295f,
  abstract     = {{<p>Goal-directed mental processes focused on oneself often co-occur with goal-directed mental processes focused on other people or objects. However, little is known about the mechanisms of this fundamental type of cognitive interaction. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of cognitive interference associated with self-related processing compared with other-related processing. In two separate experiments, we found that an additional letter-case task interfered with self-recognition significantly less than with the recognition of famous and unknown others. This principal finding was consistent across the accuracy and latency of the participants' responses and across different categories of autobiographical stimuli. Together, these results suggest that the goal-directed processing of self-related stimuli is relatively effortless and that it could easily co-occur with additional mental tasks. Implications for models of access to self-concept and models of cognitive interference are discussed.</p>}},
  author       = {{Tacikowski, Pawel and Freiburghaus, Tove and Ehrsson, Henrik H.}},
  issn         = {{0022-1031}},
  keywords     = {{Automatic processing; Cognitive interference; Controlled processing; Self-concept}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  pages        = {{93--100}},
  publisher    = {{Academic Press}},
  series       = {{Journal of Experimental Social Psychology}},
  title        = {{Goal-directed processing of self-relevant information is associated with less cognitive interference than the processing of information about other people}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.05.007}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jesp.2016.05.007}},
  volume       = {{68}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}