here is an unconventional (and not very fast) way of detecting references within arrays:

<?php

    function is_array_reference ($arr, $key) {
        $isRef = false;
        ob_start();
        var_dump($arr);
        if (strpos(preg_replace("/[ \n\r]*/i", "", preg_replace("/( ){4,}.*(\n\r)*/i", "", ob_get_contents())), "[" . $key . "]=>&") !== false)
            $isRef = true;
        ob_end_clean();
        return $isRef;
    }

?>