自我與自我姓名是否緊密相連？－－佛教自我觀之初探

Self Accompanied by One's Own Name–Exploring the Self-Concept of Buddhism

命名是語言最重要的特質之一，有助於溝通和表徵。然而，覺知及瞭解外界事物不必得透過命名這道程序，也不必然會牽涉名稱。基於自我和自我姓名的獨特性，本研究想要探討當指涉對象是自己時，姓名是否會連帶著被引發出來；就佛教自我觀的世俗諦而言，自我是方便施設的假名，因此答案是肯定的。本研究採用改制式Stroop派典來檢驗此問題。參與者僅限姓名有顏色字者（本研究以黃姓者為例）。實驗一藉由自我指涉字「我」來引發自我，以便探知姓名是否會被連帶引發出來，進而影響到參與者對顏色的判斷。假使自我和姓名乃緊密相連，那麼將會產生Stroop效果，也即黃色「我」會快於藍色「我」。實驗一結果顯示正是如此。實驗二以自己臉來引發自我，分成意識促發和無意識促發兩種情況。結果發現唯有在意識促發情況下，姓名才會伴隨著自我。整體而言，本研究結果乃初步符合佛教自我觀的世俗諦：就一般常人而言，自我與自我姓名乃緊密相連。

Naming (i.e., people giving objects arbitrary labels) is important for communication andrepresentation. Without it, however, we can still perceive and identify an object. “Self” seems specific and so does a person's own name.We examine the question that when the referring object is self, is it necessary toattach one's own name? In Buddhism, the self-concept for ordinary people is nothing but a convenient label, sothe answer is yes. We used the modified Stroop paradigm to examine this. Participants were restricted to those whosefamily names are “黃”, meaning “yellow” in English. In Experiment 1, the Chinese character “我”, meaning “I” and referringto self, was displayedin yellow or blue, and used to elicit self. Participants were asked to respond to the ink color. If selfnameis concomitant with self, a Stroop effect on the colored word “I” (shorter reaction times to yellow “I” than blue “I” )would be found. Results showed that was the case. In Experiment 2, the participants' own faceswere used to elicit self, eitherconsciously or unconsciously. Results showed that self was accompanied by self-name only when elicited consciously. These results are consistent with the selfconcept of Buddhism:activation of “self” is accompanied by one' s own name.