Mnemic Neglect for Behaviors Enacted by Members of One’s Nationality Group

People exhibit impaired recall for highly self-threatening information that describes them, a phenomenon called the mnemic neglect effect (MNE). We hypothesized that the MNE extends to recall for information that highly threatens an individual’s important in-group identity. We tested our hypothesis in two experiments in which participants read behaviors depicted as enacted by either in-group members (Experiment 1 = American and Experiment 2 = British) or out-group members (Andorrans). Participants recalled identity-threatening behaviors poorly when enacted by in-group members but not when enacted by out-group members. Additional results evinced in-group favoritism in (1) evaluations of the two groups and (2) trait judgments made from the behaviors, but only on traits central to the self. Finally, mediational analyses suggested that the group-driven memory differences are plausibly due to the global between-group evaluation differences but not the perceived between-group trait judgment differences.

Cognitive reactivity amplifies the activation and development of negative self-schema: A revised mnemic neglect paradigm and computational modelling

Little is known about how self-schemas are formed, fluctuate, and are reinforced. In this study, we used a revised mnemic neglect paradigm to examine how self-schema fluctuates following episodic events (feedback) and its self-concordance. Undergraduate students (N = 42) exhibiting various depressive symptoms underwent psychological testing followed by bogus feedback regarding their personality, future, and behavioural traits, where they rated their state self-schemas and feedback self-concordance trial by trial. Linear mixed models showed that feedback self-concordance was determined by the interaction between self-schema and the emotional valence of the feedback, and the self-schema fluctuated with the interaction between prediction error (the difference between the emotional valence of the feedback and the current self-schema) and feedback self-concordance. Cognitive reactivity, the ease of responding to negative moods, was associated with higher parameters regressed onto self-schema and self-concordance regardless of feedback valence, indicating that it enhances the likelihood of self-schema fluctuation positively and negatively. The results of computational modelling employed for the simulation of self-schema development show that some individuals developed a negative self-schema even after experiencing many positive events, while others developed a positive self-schema after experiencing many negative events; these parameters were characteristic of individuals with high levels of cognitive reactivity. These results have significant implications for self-schema development and depression.