ABSTRACT

The “self” shapes the way in which we process the world around us. It makes sense then, that self-related information is reliably prioritised over non self-related information in cognition. How might other factors such as self-compatibility shape the way self-relevant information is prioritised? The present work asks whether affective consistency between the self and arbitrarily self-associated stimuli influences the degree to which self-prioritisation can be observed. To this end, participants were asked to associate themselves with either a positive or a negative concept and to then indicate if a given stimulus (Experiment 1: Emotional faces; Experiment 2: Luminance cues) and an identity label matched. If affective consistency is key to self-prioritisation, negative constructs should dampen self-prioritisation and positive constructs should boost self-prioritisation because the self is universally construed as positive. Indeed, the results of the two experiments indicate that participants who made the negative association had more difficulty confirming whether the stimulus and the label matched than those who made the positive association. The implications of this finding are discussed in terms of “self” theories that span various levels of information processing. The data reveal that self-referential information processing goes beyond a default elevation of priority to the self.

摘要

“自我”塑造了我们处理周围世界的方式。因此，在认知中，自相关信息可靠地优先于非自相关信息是有道理的。自我兼容性等其他因素如何影响自我相关信息的优先排序方式？目前的工作询问自我和任意自我相关刺激之间的情感一致性是否会影响可以观察到的自我优先排序的程度。为此，参与者被要求将自己与积极或消极的概念联系起来，然后指出给定的刺激（实验 1：情绪面孔；实验 2：亮度线索）和身份标签是否匹配。如果情感一致性是自我优先排序的关键，消极的构念应该抑制自我优先考虑，积极的构念应该促进自我优先考虑，因为自我普遍被认为是积极的。事实上，这两个实验的结果表明，产生负面关联的参与者比做出正面关联的参与者更难以确认刺激和标签是否匹配。这一发现的含义根据跨越不同信息处理层次的“自我”理论进行了讨论。数据显示，自我参照信息处理超出了对自我的默认优先级提升。这两个实验的结果表明，产生负面关联的参与者比做出积极关联的参与者更难确认刺激和标签是否匹配。这一发现的含义根据跨越不同信息处理层次的“自我”理论进行了讨论。数据显示，自我参照信息处理超出了对自我的默认优先级提升。这两个实验的结果表明，产生负面关联的参与者比做出积极关联的参与者更难确认刺激和标签是否匹配。这一发现的含义根据跨越不同信息处理层次的“自我”理论进行了讨论。数据显示，自我参照信息处理超出了对自我的默认优先级提升。