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

儿童通过编码和从记忆中提取来展示学习。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”(SRE)表明，与他人有关的信息相比，个人更善于记住关于自己的信息。这特别有效，因为它发生在不同的环境中。例如，当信息被认为是自己拥有的，或者当信息在考虑自我时被编码时。探索SRE范围的大多数研究都是在实验室环境中进行的。为了确定学习的益处，这个项目旨在探索自我参照在课堂上的潜在用途。该项目将探索一系列识字处理、计算处理和学习任务中的SRE。在学习中的个性化，如在材料中包括个人爱好和卡通人物，一直受到鼓励，因为这有助于促进丰富的编码。然而，这是昂贵的，因为它需要个性化的材料。自我参照的成本较低，因为这些变化不是个别的(例如，使用代词你或我而不是字符名称)，但有证据表明，这些变化会改善学习。例如，在一项拼写任务中，与写另一个字的句子相比，当孩子们写出以I开头的句子时，他们对新单词的拼写准确性有所提高。他们还写了更长的句子，这表明他们更专注于学习。在算术任务中，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？“)比起完全以第三人称呈现问题时(例如，“Tom有5个球……”)，解决问题的速度更快、更准确。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的形状，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照有很大的潜力；然而，有必要进行系统的研究，以测试这些操作的有效性及其潜在的机制。关于自我参照对学习的影响，已经提出了三种可能的机制。首先是自我认识框架，这是对战略经济最成熟的解释。相对于记忆中的其他知识，自我知识特别广泛和容易获得，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，注意力也可能起到重要作用，这方面的探索程度较低，特别是在学习方面。自我暗示很难被忽视，这可能会提供一种机制，让孩子们参与到要学习的材料中来，时间间隔更长。最后，工作记忆是一种同时包含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，当人称代词被包括在识字和算术任务中时，它会减少所指对象或需要记住的事物的数量。本研究将测试自我参照对注意能力、工作记忆负荷、任务投入和记忆支持的影响，以此作为将自我参照成功转化到课堂上的必要步骤。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。在实验设计的每一阶段，我们都会征询教师的意见，以确保教材可方便地应用于课堂活动。这项计划会根据所进行的实验，开发教育资源和一个网站，让教师和家长在学习时可进行自我参考。这将确保该项目在实践中的影响是广泛和可持续的。

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.