Reminiscence bump

The reminiscence bump is the tendency for older adults to have increased recollection for events that occurred during their 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. The reminiscence bump is the tendency for older adults to have increased recollection for events that occurred during their 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. The lifespan retrieval curve is a graph that represents the number of autobiographical memories encoded at various ages during the life span. The lifespan retrieval curve contains three different parts. From birth to five years old is a period of childhood amnesia, from 16 to 25 years old is the reminiscence bump and last is a period of forgetting from the end of the reminiscence bump to present time. The reminiscence bump has been observed on the lifespan retrieval curve in multiple studies. The reminiscence bump occurs because memory storage in autobiographical memory is not consistent through time. Rather, memory storage increases during times of changes in the self and in life goals, such as the changes in identity that occur during adolescence.Researchers have consistently observed the reminiscence bump, the period of increased memory accessibility in participants' lifespan retrieval curves, and the bump has been reproduced under a range of study conditions. Adolescence and early adulthood have been described as special times in memory encoding because individuals typically recall a disproportionate number of autobiographical memories from those periods. The reminiscence bump accounts for this disproportionate number of memories. The reminiscence bump typically occurs between 10 years of age and 30 years of age and is the period that individuals produce the most memories during free recall tasks. Research suggests that memories are easily accessible from the reminiscence bump because they are linked to self-identity. The memories found within the reminiscence bump significantly contribute to an individual's life goals, self-theories, attitudes, and beliefs. 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. There are three possible explanations of the reminiscence bump: a cognitive account, a narrative/identity account, and a biological/maturational account. The cognitive account suggests that memories are remembered best because they occur during a period of rapid change followed by a period of relative stability. There is an assumed memory advantage for the novel and distinct events that is followed by a period of stability. The novel events are subject to greater elaborative cognitive processing leading to better encoding of these memories. Moreover, the period of stability that follows increases the stability of the cues for these memories and increases the chances of recall. The narrative/identity account suggests that the reminiscence bump occurs because a sense of identity develops during adolescence and early adulthood. 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). Identity formation provides added motivation for using cognitive processes to ensure recall of these memories. The events from this period are more likely to be organized into a story or view of oneself, and benefits from the advantage of schematic organization in memory. The biological/maturational account suggests that genetic fitness is improved by having many memories that fall within the reminiscence bump. Cognitive capacities are at their optimum from the ages of 10 to 30 and the reminiscence bump may reflect a peak in cognitive performance. This account is therefore sometimes called the cognitive abilities account. 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 reminiscence bump is caused by age-related differences in encoding efficiency, which cause more memories to be stored in adolescence and early adulthood. There is one additional theory that explains the occurrence of the reminiscence bump: the life script account. A life script refers to the series of culturally important transitional events that are expected to occur in a certain order at various points during the life span. During early adulthood one starts to make important decisions and have influencing experiences on his or her identity. 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). A life script typically has the majority of expected transitional experiences occur during early adulthood (Gluck & Bluck, 2007), and usually include includes positive experiences such as marriage, the birth of a baby, or buying a house. Events that deviate from the life script are typically sad and traumatic. 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. Life scripts act as a way to structure memory and lead to the expectation that the happiest and the most important life events form the reminiscence bump. Contrary to the recall of happy events, the recall of sad events remains stable across the life span and does not exhibit a bump in recall.