Cognitive and Neural Development of Individuated Self-Representation in Children

Processing the self-relevance of information facilitates recall. Similarly, processing close-other-related informa-tion facilitates recall to a lesser degree than processing self-relevant information. This memory advantage may be viewed as an index of the degree to which the representation of self is differentiated from represen-tations of close others. To test developmental hypotheses concerning the self, this study examined the relation of memory for self- and mother-referentially processed information in participants age 7–13 years (Experi-ment 1: N = 37; Experiment 2: N = 14). Memory for words encoded with reference to oneself increases with age, relative to memory for words encoded with reference to one’s mother. When used as an individual difference measure, the difference in self versus mother memory correlates with regions of the rostral anterior cingulate associated with affective salience. Social cognitive theory and research suggest that the cognitive representation of one’s self develops and individuates from the representation of parents in childhood and adolescence, as cognitive capacity and interpersonal experience increase (Baldwin