Time Frame Affects Vantage Point in Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Memory: Evidence from Response Latencies.

Previous research suggests that, with the passage of time, representations of self in episodic memory become less dependent on their initial (internal) vantage point and shift toward an external perspective that is normally characteristic of how other people are represented. The present experiment examined this phenomenon in both episodic and semantic autobiographical memory using latency of self-judgments as a measure of accessibility of the internal vs. the external perspective.

Accessibility of observable and unobservable characteristics in autobiographical memories of recent and distant past.

Self-reports regarding how people visualise themselves during events that occurred in the past show that for events from the distant past individuals report assuming a more external perspective than for events from the recent past [Nigro, G., & Neisser, U. (1983).

OBSERVABLE AND UNOBSERVABLE ASPECTS OF TRAITS IN SELF-OTHER COMPARISONS.

Previous research on absolute trait judgments regarding self and others showed that, compared to self-judgments, other-judgments involve greater focus on external, observable (as opposed to internal, unobservable) aspects of traits. The present research attempted to extend those findings to comparative judgments. In two experiments, Polish undergraduates (N = 144) were asked to perform a series of comparative self-other judgments followed by a series of absolute judgments regarding either the self or another person.

Reversed better-than-average effect in direct comparisons of nonsocial stimuli depends on the set size.

Studies on direct comparative judgments typically show that, for items that are positively evaluated, a single item randomly drawn from a larger set of similar items tends to be judged as better than average (the BTA effect). However, Windschitl, Conybeare, and Krizan (2008) demonstrated that, under timing conditions that do not favor focusing attention on the single item, the reversal of the BTA effect occurs. We report two experiments showing that the magnitude of the reversed BTA effect increases as a function of the size of a multiitem referent with which a single item target is compared.

Accessibility of private and public aspects of traits descriptive of oneself and others.

Previous research has shown that compared to mental representations of others, mental representations of ourselves are characterized by relatively greater accessibility of private, unobservable content, as opposed to content that is public and observable. Are those differences preserved when individuals focus on their own public selves and/or on private selves of others? Participants were asked to make social judgments involving traits that, in their view, were highly descriptive of either public or private selves of themselves, their best friend, or an acquaintance. Results demonstrated that highly self-descriptive traits were more accessible in social judgments involving individuals' private rather than public selves.

Salience and asymmetric judgments of physical distance.

Previous research has shown that distance estimates made from memory are often asymmetric. Specifically, when A is a prominent location (a landmark) and B is not, people tend to recall a longer distance from A to B than from B to A. Results of two experiments showed that asymmetric judgments of distance are not restricted to judgments made from memory but occur also for judgments made when all relevant visual cues are still present.

Defining traits differently for self and others.

Identical trait labels may be understood differently in thinking about self and in thinking about others. Specifically, when making self-judgments, individuals define traits primarily in terms of unobservable manifestations, e.g.