Location of the Self

A lot of research suggests that people have an understanding of what they consider their ‘self’ and where it is located, namely near the head and upper torso. We assess whether these interpretations of the location of the self, which are based on subjective ratings, can be confirmed with an objective measure. Therefore, we used a paradigm in which neutral stimuli are associated with the self and a prioritization of the newly self-associated stimuli is interpreted as an integration of the stimuli into the self. Remarkably, only when the to-be-associated stimuli were presented close to the head and upper torso they were integrated and prioritized, but not when the stimuli were presented far away from these regions. The results indicate an influence of the distance between to-be-associated stimuli and the head/upper torso, thereby suggesting an implicit location of the self in this area, which does not depend on external beliefs.

大量研究表明，人类对自身所认知的“自我（self）”及其所在位置存在清晰认知，即自我定位于头部与上躯干附近。本研究旨在验证：这类基于主观评分的自我位置认知，能否通过客观测量手段得以证实。据此，我们采用了一套实验范式：将中性刺激与自我建立关联，若新关联的自我相关刺激表现出加工优先性，则可将该现象解读为刺激已被整合进入自我表征。值得注意的是，仅当待关联刺激呈现于头部与上躯干附近时，该刺激才会被整合并获得加工优先性；若刺激呈现于远离上述区域的位置，则未出现此类效应。本研究结果证实，待关联刺激与头部/上躯干之间的距离会产生显著影响，这表明自我存在一个内隐的空间定位区域，且该定位并不依赖于外部的主观信念。