The Reminiscence Bump: Literature Review
The reminiscence bump is the increased tendency for older adults to have an increased recollection of events that happened during adolescence and early adulthood. It was identified through the study of autobiographical memory and the subsequent plotting of the age of encoding of memories to form the lifespan retrieval curve. This literature review attempts to focus on both the methodology that has been used to study autobiographical memory and the reminiscence bump, as well as various factors that have been found to influence it.
Researchers focusing on the reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory have developed varying methodology that investigates the occurrence of the bump as well as factors …show more content…
The researcher conducted four studies exploring specifically the distribution of events predicted by college students as well as the memories of older adults. In study 1, college students were asked to describe events that they think are likely to be experienced by a 70 year old person. The students were specifically asked to describe events that are positive, negative, or surprising and indicate at what stage across the lifespan these events were likely to occur. These were later used as prompts in study 2, whereby older adults described accounts detailing their own memories resulting from these prompts. Studies 3 and 4 focused primarily on college student expectations and thus removed the emotional cue of surprisal as was examined in studies 1 and 2. In study 3, undergraduate students described events that they thought would be highly expected, or unexpected too have occurred in the life of a 70 year old. Again, these events were used as prompts for a group of older adults in study 4, who recalled expected and unexpected memories of events that had occurred throughout their life. A later comparison of the life events predicted by students with the memory distributions of older adults indicated that reminiscence bumps were present, not only for memories of positive and unexpected events, but also for memories that were …show more content…
For example, cue word methodology (Galton 1879; Crovitz-Shiffman; Conway & Haque 1999) has been applied in this instance in order to stimulate memory recall in autobiographical memory. Research using cue word methodology alone has consistently established a reminiscence bump between the ages of 10-30 when memories are plotted over the lifespan retrieval curve. Schlagman et al (2009) noted that the use of cue word methodology alone fails to distinguish between memories that are involuntary or voluntary, and consequently ignored memory that occurs in everyday life without deliberate attempt to retrieve that memory. Thus, the researchers used diary methodology, as well as cue word methodology in order to compensate this. The main findings of this study highlighted a recency effect in the recall of voluntary and involuntary memories of younger participants, as well as a reminiscence bump and recency effect in the recall of autobiographical memory in older participants. Specifically, diary entry methodology highlighted that voluntary memories recalled by older adults are rated as more positive, however they are less specific and recalled more slowly than younger participants. Further research has focused on the reminiscence bump and its role in the development self. Rathbone et al (2008) used novel methodology,
The reminiscence bump is the increased tendency for older adults to have an increased recollection of events that happened during adolescence and early adulthood. It was identified through the study of autobiographical memory and the subsequent plotting of the age of encoding of memories to form the lifespan retrieval curve. This literature review attempts to focus on both the methodology that has been used to study autobiographical memory and the reminiscence bump, as well as various factors that have been found to influence it.
Researchers focusing on the reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory have developed varying methodology that investigates the occurrence of the bump as well as factors …show more content…
The researcher conducted four studies exploring specifically the distribution of events predicted by college students as well as the memories of older adults. In study 1, college students were asked to describe events that they think are likely to be experienced by a 70 year old person. The students were specifically asked to describe events that are positive, negative, or surprising and indicate at what stage across the lifespan these events were likely to occur. These were later used as prompts in study 2, whereby older adults described accounts detailing their own memories resulting from these prompts. Studies 3 and 4 focused primarily on college student expectations and thus removed the emotional cue of surprisal as was examined in studies 1 and 2. In study 3, undergraduate students described events that they thought would be highly expected, or unexpected too have occurred in the life of a 70 year old. Again, these events were used as prompts for a group of older adults in study 4, who recalled expected and unexpected memories of events that had occurred throughout their life. A later comparison of the life events predicted by students with the memory distributions of older adults indicated that reminiscence bumps were present, not only for memories of positive and unexpected events, but also for memories that were …show more content…
For example, cue word methodology (Galton 1879; Crovitz-Shiffman; Conway & Haque 1999) has been applied in this instance in order to stimulate memory recall in autobiographical memory. Research using cue word methodology alone has consistently established a reminiscence bump between the ages of 10-30 when memories are plotted over the lifespan retrieval curve. Schlagman et al (2009) noted that the use of cue word methodology alone fails to distinguish between memories that are involuntary or voluntary, and consequently ignored memory that occurs in everyday life without deliberate attempt to retrieve that memory. Thus, the researchers used diary methodology, as well as cue word methodology in order to compensate this. The main findings of this study highlighted a recency effect in the recall of voluntary and involuntary memories of younger participants, as well as a reminiscence bump and recency effect in the recall of autobiographical memory in older participants. Specifically, diary entry methodology highlighted that voluntary memories recalled by older adults are rated as more positive, however they are less specific and recalled more slowly than younger participants. Further research has focused on the reminiscence bump and its role in the development self. Rathbone et al (2008) used novel methodology,