College students (N=98) made self-reference judgments about the same 120 trait adjectives from two perspectives, once in terms of the "real" self and once in terms of the "ideal" self. Traits could then be separated into four categories of distinctiveness: those descriptive of both real and ideal self-concepts; those descriptive of real self only; those descriptive of ideal self only; and those in neither the real nor ideal self-concept. When the target was the real self, unique traits (real only or ideal only) took more time for self-descriptiveness decisions than less distinctive (both) traits, whereas this time lag did not appear when the target was the ideal self. It was also observed that ideal-self decisions were made more quickly than real-self decisions, regardless of trait distinctiveness. Traits judged to be descriptive of the real self (both or real only) were later recalled better than those not descriptive of real self (ideal only and neither), but there was no corresponding difference for those desired for the ideal self versus those undesired. References are included, and three data analysis figures are appended. (Author/TE)