Recent research using enfacement and the rubber-hand illusion suggests that what belongs to the self is quite malleable. The Theory of Event Coding predicts: the more features overlap between self and other, the more pronounced self-other integration. Such integration leads to increased ownership and agency, and feature-migration between self and other. TEC could thus explain the malleability of self-experience. A recent enfacement study from our lab shows that even moods can migrate from avatar to subject. This result holds great promise for therapeutic practice. To test TECs predictions regarding self-other integration and better understand feature-migration, we manipulated the degree of feature overlap between participants and avatars (same gender vs. different gender) and the degree of control that participants have over the avatar. With this setup we tested whether visual similarity between avatar and subject can enhance mood migration. We hypothesized that more feature overlap results in more mood migration.

As we are constantly influenced by content, which is in any form related to our self, a clear definition of our ‚self‘ is of great importance. Clearly distinguishable from the explicit, social-psychological self-concept, a so-called ‘minimal self’ is conceptualized as a network of features, comparable to the representation of a simple object. Up to now, investigations of the minimal self revealed a flexible integration of content into the minimal self, which includes complex concepts, is specific for particular content, and is modality-independent – in sum indicating a high functionality of the integration of stimuli into the self. In order to understand the mechanisms of these self-integrations, we investigated the integration of another person into the minimal self by means of the so-called self-prioritization effect (SPE). Besides the typical SPE, indicating a prioritization of self-relevant associations in a simple matching task, we tested for the prioritization of a teammate (i.e., a second participant working on the same task). N = 50 participants showed a significant prioritization of the teammate indicating that the integration of stimuli into the minimal self is comparable to basic feature bindings. Additionally, this prioritization was modulated by the spatial distance to the teammate suggesting either high or low relevance of the teammate. The results reveal insights about how our minimal self is generated by demonstrating the comparability with simple feature bindings and that self-integration follows particular rules.

It is well-established that stimuli inheriting self-relevance yield beneficial information processing. For example, one’s own name captures attention and one’s own face –if presented among others' faces– is recognized more quickly than those of others. It has been demonstrated that when controlling for the familiarity of self-associated stimuli like one’s own name or face, self-prioritization can still be observed. That is, the association of geometric shapes to oneself, a familiar other, and a stranger leads to better performance in self-associated trials of a subsequent matching task. Specifically, the verification of the self-associated geometric shape and the self-related label as a “correct pair” is faster and more accurate than those of other-associated geometric shapes and other-related labels; this is known as the self-prioritization effect (SPE; Sui, He, & Humphreys, 2012). In the current experiment, we tested the dependence of the SPE on perceptual features by using a crossmodal variant of the matching task. That is, participants associated specific temporal patterns to themselves, a familiar other, and a stranger. In detail, the temporal patterns were represented by vibrations (tactile stimulation) in the association phase. In the subsequent matching task, the temporal patterns were represented by visual flashes. Remarkably, we observed a visual self-prioritization effect – even though the visual flashes had never been paired with the labels. This indicates that abstract representations of the stimuli at hand rather than perceptual features underpin the SPE.

Familiar self-associated stimuli such as one’s own name and face can enhance performance in cuing tasks when compared to other names or faces. However, it is unclear whether newly self-associated stimuli can capture attention as effectively as familiar self-associated stimuli. A sample of 30 participants associated geometric shapes to themselves and a stranger. They then performed a target-discrimination task (“Is the target a p or a q?”). Self- and stranger-associated stimuli were simultaneously presented preceding the target. The to-be-identified target either followed the self- or the stranger-related stimuli. Further, the type of representation varied: the self and the stranger were either represented by familiar labels, by the newly associated geometric shapes or by shape-label pairs. Significant effects were observed for target location (p < .001) as well as type of representation (p < .001), with faster reaction times towards targets following self-representations than stranger-representations. The interaction between target location and type of representation was also significant (p < .001). Specifically, a significant difference between responses cued by self- vs. stranger-representations was observed when the self and stranger were represented by a label (p < .001) or a shape-label pair (p < .001). The newly self-associated shape did not yield a significant difference in responses to targets cued by self vs. stranger (p = .325). Results are interpreted as an attentional prioritization effect yielded by familiar self- vs. stranger-representations in contrast to newly established representations.

In this talk, we present evidence from two experimental lines combining spatial compatibility tasks such as the Simon task with task-irrelevant self-related stimulus material. In Experiment 1, participants responded to the color of a dot superimposed on photos of different faces (one’s own, co-actor’s face, stranger’s face) presented on the left or right side of the screen’s center. In Experiment 2, whole-body photos of different humans (one’s own, stranger’s photo) holding a colored ball in either hand presented on either side of the screen’s center were utilized. In both experiments, the task-relevant feature required a classification based on the stimulus color whereas the stimulus location was task-irrelevant. Therefore, two kinds of compatibility effects could be considered, i.e. based on the spatial compatibility between the stimulus location and the response (i.e. the Simon Effect) and based on the compatibility between the identity of the actor on the photo and the responding agent (i.e. Photo-Agent Effect). In Experiment 1, the spatial compatibility effect was more salient than the identity-based compatibility effect. Experiment 2 found evidence for both, i.e. spatial and identity-based compatibility effects. Using both, i.e. task-irrelevant self-relatedness and task-irrelevant spatial location, shifted the cognitive weights associated with the spatial and identity-based compatibility.