Examining the life story account of the reminiscence bump: Why we remember more from young adulthood

The reminiscence bump is a robust finding demonstrated mostly with the cue-word method in Western cultures. The first aim of the study was to replicate the reminiscence bump using a life history timeline method and to extend reminiscence bump research to a Turkish sample. The second aim was to empirically examine the recently proposed life story account (Glück & Bluck, 2007) for the reminiscence bump. The sample consisted of 40 women and 32 men aged 52 to 66 years. Participants’ lives were divided into 5-year intervals and they verbally reported as many memories as possible in a standard timeframe from each interval (in random order) and provided ratings of several memory characteristics. As expected, the lifespan distribution of the resulting 6373 memories demonstrated a reminiscence bump. In support of the life story account, bump memories were found to be more novel, more important for identity development, more distinct, and more likely to involve developmental transitions than memories from other age periods. Findings are discussed in terms of the life story account, which synthesises lifespan developmental theory and life story theory.     

The reminiscence bump in older adults' life story transitions

Older adults' memories of events that occurred in adolescence and early adulthood are over-represented compared to other lifetime periods. Prior research on this reminiscence bump has focused on qualities of individual memories. The present study used a novel interview method to examine the potential role played by mental representations of extended lifetime periods. Older adults provided oral life stories, and they divided their transcribed narratives into “chapters”. Participants' ages at chapter beginnings and endings showed pronounced reminiscence bumps. The results are consistent with the idea that personal episodes occurring near the boundaries of extended lifetime periods receive preferential processing that enhances long-term memory.     

Self-centered memories: The reminiscence bump and the self

The self-memory relationship is thought to be bidirectional, in such a way that memories provide context for the self, and equally, the self exercises control over retrieval (Conway, 2005). Autobiographical memories are not distributed equally across the life span; instead, memories peak between ages 10 and 30. This reminiscence bump has been suggested to support the emergence of a stable and enduring self. In the present study, the relationship between memory accessibility and self was explored with a novel methodology that used generation of self images in the form of I am statements. Memories generated from I am cues clustered around the time of emergence for that particular self image. We argue that, when a new self-image is formed, it is associated with the encoding of memories that are relevant to that self and that remain highly accessible to the rememberer later in life. This study offers a new methodology for academics and clinicians interested in the relationship between memory and identity.     

Transition to young adulthood: A prospective study

In this paper, the authors report on the transition to young adulthood (18-25) in the highest functioning 18 individuals in our cohort (GAF 90) from a prospective longitudinal study of 76 lives followed from birth. These 18 individuals provide as clear a view as possible into the inner lives of people least distorted by psychopathology. This gives us a more crystalline photograph of psychic structure: the precipitant of family, society and psyche itself. Using a standard DSM IV criterion, Global Assessment Functioning (GAF), provides phenomenological homogeneity, but leaves us with heterogeneity of inner life. The 18 individuals had relatively rare drug or alcohol use and less sexual partners. Vocational functioning exceeded intimacy. Four had tumultuous pathways into adulthood. Nine were crossover cases, coming from sub-optimal mothering, with significant variation in gender distribution and intrapsychic structure. The paper discusses factors facilitating and inhibiting development and the nature of memories.     

Child-rearing antecedents of intergenerational relations in young adulthood: a prospective study.

Data gathered from mothers on parenting and family climate when almost 1,000 children in the Dunedin, New Zealand, longitudinal study were 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, and 15 years of age were used to predict intergenerational relations between young adult children (age 26) and their middle-aged parents. Analyses focused on distinct developmental epochs revealed greater prediction from the middle-childhood and early-adolescent periods than from the early-childhood years: most indicated that more supportive family environments and child-rearing experiences in the family of origin forecasted more positive and less negative parent-child relationships (in terms of contact, closeness, conflict, reciprocal assistance) in young adulthood, though associations were modest in magnitude. Some evidence indicated that (modestly) deleterious effects on intergenerational relations of experiencing relatively unsupportive child-rearing environments in 1 but not 2 (of 3) developmental periods studied could be offset by relatively supportive family environments in the remaining developmental periods.     

The tracks of my years: Personal significance contributes to the reminiscence bump

Two studies investigated the role of the self in the reminiscence bump (heightened retrieval for events from young adulthood). Participants over the age of 40 years were presented with top-grossing films and songs, and were asked to select the five that were most personally significant. Study 1 produced reminiscence bumps for personally significant songs, when measured by both participants’ age at release (AaR) and age when songs were reported as most important (AaI). This effect was not shown for films. In Study 2, participants again selected their personally significant songs but also rated all songs for whether they were known, remembered (e.g., associated with an episodic memory), or not known. Personally significant songs were significantly more likely to be associated with episodic memories, compared to personally non-significant songs. Again, only personally significant songs formed a reminiscence bump. Findings underline a critical role of personal significance in the reminiscence bump, which we argue is consistent with the formation of identity in this lifetime period.     

The temporal distribution of autobiographical memory: changes in reliving and vividness over the life span do not explain the reminiscence bump

When autobiographical memories are elicited with word cues, personal events from middle childhood to early adulthood are overrepresented compared to events from other periods. It is, however, unclear whether these memories are also associated with greater recollection. In this online study, we examined whether autobiographical memories from adolescence and early adulthood are recollected more than memories from other lifetime periods. Participants rated personal events that were elicited with cue words on reliving or vividness. Consistent with previous studies, most memories came from the period in which the participants were between 6 and 20 years old. The memories from this period were not relived more or recalled more vividly than memories from other lifetime periods, suggesting that they do not involve more recollection. Recent events had higher levels of reliving and vividness than remote events, and older adults reported a stronger recollective experience than younger adults.     

Temporal distribution of autobiographical memory: Uncovering the reminiscence bump in Japanese young and middle‐aged adults1

The reminiscence bump is the effect that people recall more personal events from their teenage period than from adjacent lifetime periods. The effect is generally found in studies that divide the results of participants, who were at least 40 years old, into age bins of 10 years. In this study, the temporal distribution of autobiographical memories of Japanese young and middle‐aged adults was examined. Because the questionnaire was presented on the internet, many participants could take part (N = 252). By dividing the personal events into smaller age bins and applying a mathematical method that corrects for the increased recall of recent events, a reminiscence bump could be identified in the memories of young adults. The location of the reminiscence bump of young adults was similar to the location of the reminiscence bump of middle‐aged adults.     

The reminiscence bump without memories: The distribution of imagined word-cued and important autobiographical memories in a hypothetical 70-year-old

The reminiscence bump is the disproportionate number of autobiographical memories dating from adolescence and early adulthood. It has often been ascribed to a consolidation of the mature self in the period covered by the bump. Here we stripped away factors relating to the characteristics of autobiographical memories per se, most notably factors that aid in their encoding or retention, by asking students to generate imagined word-cued and imagined ‘most important’ autobiographical memories of a hypothetical, prototypical 70-year-old of their own culture and gender. We compared the distribution of these fictional memories with the distributions of actual word-cued and most important autobiographical memories in a sample of 61–70-year-olds. We found a striking similarity between the temporal distributions of the imagined memories and the actual memories. These results suggest that the reminiscence bump is largely driven by constructive, schematic factors at retrieval, thereby challenging most existing theoretical accounts.     

The reminiscence bump is blind to blindness: Evidence from sound- and odor-evoked autobiographical memory

The reminiscence bump is the disproportionally high reporting of autobiographical memories from adolescence and early adulthood and is typically observed when memories are evoked by cues, such as words, pictures, and sounds. However, when odors are used the bump shifts to early childhood. Although these findings indicate that sensory modality affects the bump, the influence of the individual’s sensory function on the reminiscence bumps is unknown. We examined the reminiscence bumps of sound- and odor-evoked autobiographical memories of early blind and sighted individuals, since early blindness implies considerable effects on sensory experience. Despite differences in sensory experience between blind and sighted individuals, the groups displayed similar age distributions of both sound- and odor-evoked memories. The auditory bump spanned the first two decades of life, whereas the olfactory bump was once again found in early childhood. These results demonstrate that the reminiscence bumps are robust to fundamental differences in sensory experience.     

The reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory: Effects of age,gender, education,and culture

We investigated the age distribution of autobiographical memories with the Galton-Crovitz method through the Internet. Almost 2000 participants in the United States and the Netherlands aged between 11 and 70 years participated. They were presented with 10 cue words, and were asked to recall and date autobiographical memories. We found strong evidence for a “reminiscence bump” in all participant groups at all ages, with peaks at ages 15–18 for men and 13–14 for women. This peak could be localised more precisely than in previous studies due to our large sample size. We were able to remove the forgetting effect from the empirical age distribution with a method that allows separate estimation of memory encoding and forgetting. American participants showed a tendency to report older memories than the Dutch. Age group and level of education did not influence the lifetime encoding function.     

The reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory: effects of age, gender, education, and culture

We investigated the age distribution of autobiographical memories with the Galton-Crovitz method through the Internet. Almost 2000 participants in the United States and the Netherlands aged between 11 and 70 years participated. They were presented with 10 cue words, and were asked to recall and date autobiographical memories. We found strong evidence for a "reminiscence bump" in all participant groups at all ages, with peaks at ages 15--18 for men and 13--14 for women. This peak could be localised more precisely than in previous studies due to our large sample size. We were able to remove the forgetting effect from the empirical age distribution with a method that allows separate estimation of memory encoding and forgetting. American participants showed a tendency to report older memories than the Dutch. Age group and level of education did not influence the lifetime encoding function.     

What the stories children tell can tell about their memory: narrative skill and young children's suggestibility

The authors examined the relation between children's narrative ability, which has been identified as an important contributor to memory development, and suggestibility. Across 2 studies, a total of 112 preschool-aged children witnessed a staged event and were subsequently questioned suggestively. Results from Study 1 indicated that children's ability to provide a high-quality narrative of the event was related to resistance to suggestive questions, and narrative ability appeared to supersede age as a predictor of such resistance. In Study 2, children's general language and narrative abilities were measured in addition to their ability to produce a high-quality narrative about the target event. These results replicated Study 1's findings that children's ability to produce a high-quality narrative of a previously experienced event predicted resistance to suggestion. However, the quality of children's autobiographical memory narratives predicted shifting from denial to assent. Findings are considered in light of narrative's role in memory development and underlying mechanisms that may explain children's suggestibility.     

Interpersonal relationship quality in young adulthood: a gender analysis

This study explored gender differences in the degree to which parent-child dyads and family system variables are associated with relationship quality in late adolescence and early adulthood. It was hypothesized that the quality of mother-child and father-child relationships, as well as family adaptability and family cohesion, would be positively correlated with the quality of intimate relationships in late adolescence and young adulthood. Further, it was hypothesized that correlations would vary according to gender. The sample was composed of 50 males and 48 females between the ages of 18 and 24. The results indicated that the relationship of family factors to the intimate relationships of young adults was similar for males and females. Specifically, a positive relationship with mother and greater adaptability in the family system during adolescence were related to more positive intimate relationships in young adulthood.     

Becoming a teller of tales: associations between children's fictional narratives and parent-child reminiscence narratives

Previous research has revealed a connection between the contributions parents make while reminiscing and their children’s narratives for personally experienced events. The current research expands the literature by focusing on the connection between parental reminiscing and children’s production of fictional narratives. After 4- to 9-year-olds and their parents reminisced about past shared events, the children (with an experimenter) produced narratives based on wordless picture books. The results revealed that the overall quality of the fictional narratives was correlated with parents’ provision statements that emphasized orientation and evaluation in the reminiscence narrative. For younger children, correlations held for reminiscence narratives about recent events. For older children, correlations held for reminiscence narratives about events from the distant past. The results are consistent with the suggestion that children learn general storytelling skills from adult models.     

Sexual behavior in young adulthood: a population-based twin study.

OBJECTIVE: With behavior genetic analyses of data from young adult twins, we evaluated theoretical perspectives that differentially emphasize biological dispositions, social/cultural factors, or universal pathways to explain individual differences in sexual behaviors. DESIGN: We fit biometric sex limitation models to three aspects of sexual behavior reported by 4,925 Finnish twins ages 23-27. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: From a postal questionnaire, we obtained self-report information on initiation/abstinence of sexual intercourse, onset age, and number of sexual partners. RESULTS: Genetic and non-shared environmental influences were significant for all three measures. There were trends for common environmental influences on initiation and, in females, age at first intercourse. Some differential effects in males and females were found. Results comparing onset age and number of partners among experienced twins from pairs concordant and discordant for initiation found genetic and environmental influences on initiation/abstinence overlapped those found for the other aspects of sexual behavior. CONCLUSIONS: These results document genetic variation in individual differences in sexual behavior of young adults. Incorporating genetic dispositions into integrated models of sexual behavior will facilitate more effective health promotion and risk taking intervention.