This study discussed whether the differential mode of association of “acquaintance” is reflected in intimacy and memory recognition through a self-reference effect paradigm experiment. In the experiment, four reference people with interpersonal distance from close to far were formed by the combination of feelings (deep, light) and communicative purpose (with, without). According to the communication frequency, the first three circles are familiar acquaintances and the fourth circle is nodding acquaintances (people who only know each other). There are a pre-experiment and a formal experiment in this study. The pre-experiment was conducted to test the reliability and validity of the matching of four reference people from two dimensions of feelings and communicative purpose to four interpersonal circles. The pre-experiment consists of two identical tests and two weeks apart. Participants were required to complete the "acquaintances’ Differential Mode of Association Questionnaire", "Interpersonal Circle Questionnaire", and "Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale" successively. Then, they were required to rate the emotional depth of the reference person on a seven-point scale, as well as the communicative instrumental purpose. The results of the pre-experiment showed that the reliability and validity of the questionnaires were good, and there is a downward trend of affinity layer by layer in degree of intimacy in the differential mode of association of "acquaintances". Feelings (deep, light) and communicative purpose (with, without) had significant influence on intimacy. Based on the self-referential effect paradigm and the R/K paradigm, the Formal experiment used a single factor (interpersonal distance: 1, 2, 3, 4, semantic) within-subject design to explore the differences in the intimacy and memory effect of the reference person from near to far. Similar to the pre-experiment, the results of formal experiment also showed a downward trend of affinity layer by layer in degree of intimacy in the differential mode of association. Feelings (deep, light) and communicative purpose (with, without) had significant influence on intimacy. The composition of the four circles in the differential mode of association of "acquaintances" formed by the combination of two factors from near to far is mainly deep/with, deep/without, light/with, light/without. And the recognition rate and R judgment rate presented a binary pattern of "familiar - nodding" acquaintance. The recognition rate of the first three layers is significantly higher than that of the fourth layer, but there is no significant difference among the first three layers, which is consistent with the communication frequency. The results can be explained from the perspectives of self-expansion model, explanation level theory, and communication frequency. First of all, the social distance represented by the interpersonal relationship leads to the psychological distance in the inner circle and the outer circle, which leads to the low-level representation and high-level representation respectively, thus affecting the result of memory recognition. Secondly, there was no significant difference in the communication frequency among reference people in the first three circles, resulting in no significant difference in the memory effect of reference people in the first three circles. The results of this study suggest that memory recognition effect is not only affected by social distance in psychological distance, but also by communication frequency. There is a possibility that social distance and communication frequency can influence the interpretation level together and then affect the memory effect. The results of this study are consistent with Ma et al. (2015) that dichotomy of differential mode of association is also reflected in memory recognition. Although the differential mode of association of "acquaintances" is different in intimacy, it also presents a dichotomous pattern in memory recognition. This shows that the dichotomy circles, as the most basic method of distinguishing the differential mode of association, is also easy to be presented in the memory of psychology.