David J. Turk|Karri Gillespie?Smith|Olave E. Krigolson|Catriona Havard|Martin Conway|Sheila J. Cunningham
Selfish learning: The impact of self-referential encoding on children's literacy attainment
University of Bristol|University of the West of Scotland|University of Victoria|The Open University|Abertay University
selfreferencing ie thinking oneself encoding increase attention toward tobeencoded material support memory information adults children current inquiry tested educational application self reference effect sre memory selfreferential modification literacy tasks vocabulary spelling tested two experiments experiment 1 sevento nineyearold children n 47 asked learn spelling four nonsense words copying vocabulary generating sentences half children asked include subject sentence results showed children selfreferent condition produced longer sentences increased spelling accuracy 20 relative otherreferent condition experiment 2 n 32 replicated pattern realword learning findings demonstrate significant potential advantages utilizing selfreferential encoding classroom