Self-referencing in the classroom: The influence of self-cues on children's information processing and retention

孩子们通过对记忆进行编码和检索来展示学习能力。因此，我们必须了解支持记忆的机制，从而了解我们如何支持学习。“自我参照效应”（self-reference effect， SRE）表明，个体更善于记住关于自己的信息，而不是与他人有关的信息。这是特别有效的，因为它发生在不同的上下文中。例如，当信息被认为是自我拥有的，或者当信息在思考自我时被编码。大多数探索SRE范围的研究都是在实验室环境中进行的。为了确定对学习的好处，本项目旨在探索自我参考在课堂上的潜在用途。该项目将在一系列识字处理、计算处理和学习任务中探索SREs。鼓励个性化学习，例如在材料中加入个人爱好和卡通人物，因为这有助于促进丰富的编码。然而，这是昂贵的，因为它需要个性化材料。自我引用的成本更低，因为这些变化不是单独的（例如，使用代词“你”或“我”代替角色名称），但有证据表明这些变化会提高学习效果。例如，在拼写任务中，当孩子们写以“I”开头的句子时，他们拼写新单词的准确性比写其他字符的句子要高。他们写的句子也更长，这表明他们对学习更投入。在算术题中，数学题中包含的自我代词（例如，你有3个球）。鲍勃比你多两个球。鲍勃有几个球？”)比完全以第三人称呈现问题（例如，“Tom有5个球……”）时，能更快、更准确地解决问题。除了代词的变化，另一项研究表明，如果孩子们在分类游戏中“拥有”新形状，他们学习新形状的效果会更好。这些研究表明，在课堂上使用自我参考具有很大的潜力；然而，系统的研究是必要的，以测试这些操作的有效性，其潜在的机制。本文提出了自我参照对学习影响的三种潜在机制。首先是自我认识框架，这是SRE最成熟的解释。相对于记忆中的其他知识，自我认识是特别广泛和可访问的，因此可以用来丰富和组织新信息，为成功检索提供多种途径。然而，注意力也可能起着重要的作用，这一点在较小程度上得到了探讨，特别是在学习方面。自我暗示很难被忽视，这可能提供了一种机制，使孩子们在更长的时间间隔内投入到要学习的材料中。最后，工作记忆，一种包括存储和处理的短期记忆，也可能受到自我参照线索的影响。例如，当人称代词被包含在识字和算术任务中时，它减少了需要记住的指代物或事物的数量。本研究将检验自我参照对注意容量、工作记忆负荷、任务投入和记忆支持的影响，这是将自我参照成功转化为课堂教学的必要步骤。翻译的另一个方面是测试SRE干预措施的可转移性，比较培训教师和学习者的影响。在实验设计的每个阶段都将寻求教师的意见，以确保材料易于转移到课堂活动中。根据所进行的实验，该计划将开发教育资源和一个网站，让教师和家长在学习中实施自我参考。这将确保该项目在实践中产生广泛和可持续的影响。

Children demonstrate learning by encoding and retrieving from memory. Therefore, it is essential that we understand the mechanisms that support memory and hence how we can support learning. The 'self-reference effect' (SRE) has shown that individuals are better at remembering information about themselves than information relating to others. This is particularly effective because it occurs in different contexts. For example, when the information is perceived as self-owned, or when the information is encoded while thinking about self. Most research exploring the extent of the SRE has been conducted in a laboratory setting. To determine the benefits for learning, this project aims to explore the potential uses of self-referencing in the classroom. The project will explore SREs across an array of literacy processing, numeracy processing and learning tasks. Personalisation in learning, such as including personal hobbies and cartoon characters in materials, has been encouraged as it helps to promote rich encoding. However, this is costly as it requires individualised materials. Self-referencing incurs less cost as the changes are not individual (e.g., using pronouns 'you' or 'I' instead of a character name) yet there is evidence that these changes lead to improvements in learning. For example, in a spelling task, children improved the accuracy of their spelling for new words when they wrote sentences starting with the word 'I' compared to sentences they wrote about another character. They also wrote longer sentences, which indicates that they were more engaged with their learning. In an arithmetic task, self-pronouns included in maths problems (e.g., You have 3 balls. Bob has 2 more balls than You. How many balls does Bob have?") elicited faster and more accurate problem-solving than when the problems were presented entirely in the third person (e.g., "Tom has 5 balls..."). In additional to pronoun changes, another study showed that children learned novel shapes better if the shapes were 'owned' by them during a sorting game. These studies indicate that there is great potential in using self-referencing in the classroom; however, systematic research is necessary to test the efficacy of these manipulations, and their underlying mechanisms. Three potential mechanisms for the impact of self-referencing on learning have been proposed. First is the self-knowledge framework, which is the most established account of the SRE. Self-knowledge is particularly extensive and accessible relative to other knowledge in memory, so can be used to enrich and organise new information, providing multiple routes to successful retrieval. However, there may also be an important role for attention and this has been explored to a lesser extent, particularly with regards to learning. Self-cues are difficult to ignore, and this may provide a mechanism whereby the children are engaged in the material to be learned for longer intervals. Finally, working memory, a type of short-term memory that encompasses both storage and processing, may also be affected by self-reference cues. For example, when personal pronouns are included in literacy and numeracy tasks, it reduces the number of referents or things to be remembered. This research will test the effect of self-referencing on attentional capacity, working memory load, task engagement ans memory support as a necessary step in the successful translation of self-referencing to the classroom. A further aspect of translation is to test transferability of SRE interventions, comparing the impact of training teachers v. learners. Teacher input will be sought at every stage of experimental design to ensure materials are easily transferable to classroom activities.Based on the experiments conducted, the project will develop educational resources and a website enabling teachers and parents to implement self-referencing in learning. This will ensure the impact of this project is wide and sustainable in practice.