Disclosed herein are systems and devices having memories with reference-initiated sequential sensing. In one embodiment, a reference-initiated sequential sensing method comprises: forming a first attribute measurement associated with a stored data value in a first memory element; using the first memory element to determine a decision threshold; comparing the first attribute measurement to the decision threshold to determine the stored data value in the first memory element; forming a subsequent attribute measurement associated with a stored data value in a subsequent memory element; and comparing the subsequent attribute value to the decision threshold to determine a data value stored in the subsequent memory element.