Skip to main content

Recent Advances in Understanding the Reminiscence Bump: The Importance of Cues in Guiding Recall from Autobiographical Memory.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Koppel, J; Rubin, DC
April 1, 2016

The reminiscence bump is the increased proportion of autobiographical memories from youth and early adulthood observed in adults over 40. It is one of the most robust findings in autobiographical memory research. Although described as a single period of increased memories, a recent meta-analysis which reported the beginning and ending ages of the bump from individual studies found that different classes of cues produce distinct bumps that vary in size and temporal location. The bump obtained in response to cue words is both smaller and located earlier in the lifespan than the bump obtained when important memories are requested. The bump obtained in response to odor cues is even earlier. This variation in the size and location of the reminiscence bump argues for theories based primarily on retrieval rather than encoding and retention, which most current theories stress. Furthermore, it points to the need to develop theories of autobiographical memory that account for this flexibility in the memories retrieved.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

DOI

Publication Date

April 1, 2016

Publisher

Association for Psychological Science

Related Subject Headings

  • Experimental Psychology
  • 52 Psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM

DOI

Publication Date

April 1, 2016

Publisher

Association for Psychological Science

Related Subject Headings

  • Experimental Psychology
  • 52 Psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology