In addition, accessibility and level of knowledge about group members may also impact such an effect. So, while university students is a much larger group than family, individual exemplars may be more readily accessible than those in a religious group. Similarly, different cognitive representations were hypothesized to influence the group-reference effect. When a larger group is considered, people may be more likely to consider a prototype which may lead to fewer elaborations and cues later on. Smaller groups may lead to relying on the prototype and specific exemplars. Finally, desirability judgments that influence later processing may be influenced by self-reference and certain group-reference tasks. Individuals may be more sensitive to evaluative implications for the personal self and some group identities, but not others. Groups are also a major part of the self; therefore we attribute the role that different groups play in our self-concept also play a role in the self-reference effect. We process information about group members similarly to how we process for ourselves. Recall of remarks referencing our home and our self and group to familiarity of those aspects of our self. Reference to the self and social group and the identity that comes along with being a part of a social group are equally affective for memory. This is especially true when the groups are small, rather than large. Ultimately, the group-reference effect provides evidence to explain the tendency to notice or pay attention to and remember statements made in regard to our home when traveling in a foreign place. Considering the proposal that groups form part of the self, this phenomenon can be considered an extension of the self-reference effect. Similar to the memorable nature of references to a person's individual self, references to social identities are seemed to be privileged in memory as well. Once the foundation of research on self-referential encoding was established, psychologists began to explore how the concept applied to different groups of people, and connected to different phenomena. Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can display a wide range of symptoms. Some of the most common characteristics of individuals with ASDs include impairments with social functioning, language and communication difficulties, repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. In addition, it is often noted that these individuals are more "self-focused." That is, they have difficulty seeing things from another's perspective. Despite being self-focused, though, research has shown that individuals with ASD's often have difficulty identifying or describing their emotions or the emotions of others. When asked to describe their daily experiences, responses from individuals on the autism spectrum tended to focus more on physical descriptions rather than mental and emotional states.