Reminiscence bump
The reminiscence bump is the tendency for adults over forty to have increased or enhanced recollection for events that occurred during their adolescence and early adulthood.
The lifespan retrieval curve is a graph that represents the number of autobiographical memories encoded at various ages during the life span.
Theorists have proposed several explanations, ranging from changes in brain biology to the type of events that typically occur during this time period.
[6] The memories found within the reminiscence bump significantly contribute to an individual's life goals, self-theories, attitudes, and beliefs.
[6] Additionally, life events that occur during the period of the reminiscence bump, such as graduation, marriage, or the birth of a child, are often very novel, thus, making them more memorable.
[7] The narrative/identity account suggests that the reminiscence bump occurs because a sense of self-identity develops during adolescence and early adulthood.
[3] Research suggests that memories that have more influence and significance to one's self are more frequently rehearsed in defining one's identity, and are therefore better remembered later in life (Ece & Gulgoz, 2014).
Researchers have suggested that the increase of cognitive ability in early adulthood may cause memories during this time period to be more adequately stored (Ece & Gulgoz, 2014).
The memories during this time period are therefore more significantly remembered because they are what has essentially determined and influenced their life script (Habernas & Bluck, 2000).
These events, such as the death of a child, are not culturally expected and often do not show a peak of recall at any specific point during the life span.
[10] Mimicked Galton's technique and had participants recall and date autobiographical memories in response to the cue- words.
[13] Subjects share personal events and researchers compare involuntary and voluntary memories of young and older children.
[5] The reminiscence bump can be observed in the distributions of people's favorite books, movies, records and video games.
[9] The influence of generation identity on the reminiscence bump can be attributed to the idea that all members of the subgroup are likely to have memories of similar types of experiences.
[9] Evidence attesting to the influence of generation identity on the reminiscence bump has been witnessed in populations that have experience with traumatic events.
[9] Researchers suggest that public events are recalled at an earlier age because individuals are gaining a sense of generational identity.
[20] People are starting to create their own beliefs and their individual identity, so these experiences are being rehearsed, practiced and stored in long-term memory.
[22] This finding suggests that the timing of important positive life events, such as marriage or employment, differ for men and women.
Alternatively, Asian cultures often value group solidarity, communion, and interconnectedness, where individuals are encouraged to develop a sense of self that is aligned with social roles, duties, and responsibilities.
Supporting this study, there was research done that compared the distribution of memories of participants from Bangladesh, China, England, Japan, and the United States.
[23] A life script is a schema that outlines cultural appropriate events that individuals should experience during a specific time period.
[30] Individuals should also remember more during their young adulthood because that era is the time of biological maturation, new experiences, adult identity formation, and major events in life scripts.
(10) Life scripts are distorted from actual lives to favor events expected to occur in the period covered by the bump.
Finally, the cultural life script theory seems unable to explain the reminiscence bump for public events.
[1] It has been identified that individuals with either a strong intimacy motivation or with a distinctive power motivation, and found that the intimacy-motivation group recalled peak experiences with a much higher percentage of intimacy themes, while the power-motivation group tended to recall peak experiences with strong themes of power and satisfaction.
In contrast, communal types showed a recollection bias for emotional memories featuring others, often significant others, in acts of love and friendship.
[36] Researchers typically use public events such as the John F. Kennedy assassination and 9/11 as cues when studying flashbulb memories.
[36] Denver, Lane and Cherry found that flashbulb memories that took place in the reminiscence bump were exceptionally vivid and easily accessible.
[36] It is suggested that the flashbulb memories encoded during the reminiscence bump are so vivid because the events happened during a time of identity formation and peak brain function.
[35] The effect of temporal lobe damage on the reminiscence bump is highly variable as a function of age at the time of injury.
