Philosophers, theologians, and psychologists have long pondered the nature of the self. One recurrent theme has been that the self plays a central organizing role -- that the self is the glue that holds together the bits and pieces of personal experience. Modern empirical evidence has supported this definition of self by demonstrating that we remember new information better when we think about its relationship to ourselves. The proposed research attempts to identify the characteristic of the self that is most essential to this self-referent memory effect. The experiments examine four factors that may contribute to the perceived continuity of self by increasing the memorability of self-relevant experiences: affect, self-schema complexity, self-attention, and self-schema congruity. Each factor is tested at three levels. First, is the factor important in distinguishing memory for one person as opposed to another? Second, is the factor more characteristic of persons who have better self-referent memory? Third, is the factor associated with self-characteristics that are better remembered? The results of these test could provide important clues to the question: what is the glue that holds the self together? The answer to this question could increase our understanding of depersonalization and other distortions that involve a loss of personal identity and coherence.