Memory is considered to be a flexible and reconstructive system. However, there is little experimental evidence demonstrating how associations are falsely constructed in memory and even less is known about the role of the self in memory construction. We investigated whether false associations involving non-presented stimuli can be constructed in episodic memory and if the self plays a role in such memory construction. In two experiments, we paired participants’ own names (i.e., self-reference) or the name “Adele” (i.e., other-reference) with words and pictures from Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) lists. We found that (1) participants not only falsely remembered the non-presented lure words and pictures as having been presented, but also misremembered that they were paired with their own name or “Adele”, depending on the referenced person of related DRM lists; and (2) there were more critical lure-self associations constructed in the self-reference condition than critical lure-other associations in the other-reference condition for word but not for picture stimuli. These results suggest a self-enhanced constructive effect that might be driven by both relational and item-specific processing. Our results support the spreading activation account for constructive episodic memory.

记忆被认为是一个灵活的、可重构的系统。然而，几乎没有实验证据证明联想是如何在记忆中错误地构建的，而且对自我在记忆构建中的作用知之甚少。我们调查了是否可以在情景记忆中构建涉及非呈现刺激的错误联想，以及自我是否在这种记忆构建中发挥作用。在两个实验中，我们将参与者自己的名字（即自我引用）或名称“阿黛尔”（即其他引用）与 Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) 列表中的单词和图片配对。我们发现（1）参与者不仅将未呈现的诱饵文字和图片错误地记住为已呈现，而且还错误地记住了它们与自己的名字或“阿黛尔”配对，取决于相关 DRM 列表的引用人；(2) 自我参照条件下构建的批判性诱饵-自我关联多于其他参照条件下的批判性诱饵-其他关联，对于单词而非图片刺激则没有。这些结果表明可能由关系处理和特定项目处理共同驱动的自我增强的建设性效果。我们的结果支持建设性情景记忆的传播激活帐户。