Which of the following effect is most closely related to the cognitive hypothesis of reminiscence bump?

The reminiscence bump refers to the disproportionate number of autobiographical memories, in middle-aged and older adults, dating from adolescence and early adulthood (Rubin, Wetzler, & Nebes, 1986). Because this distribution breaks away from the standard forgetting function (e.g., Ebbinghaus, 1964, Rubin and Wenzel, 1996), it has been considered a distinctive feature of autobiographical memory and one of its defining characteristics. Indeed, the bump is mentioned in most, if not all, introductory textbooks covering the field (e.g., Eysenck and Keane, 2010, Goldstein, 2008, Rathbone et al., 2012).

The distribution of autobiographical memories across the lifespan has most often been assessed through one of two broad classes of cueing techniques. We will refer to the first technique, developed by Crovitz and Schiffman (1974) as a modification of a procedure used by Galton (1879), as the cue word method. Here, participants generate memories in association to cue words (for subsequent studies employing this technique, see, e.g., Janssen et al., 2011, Rubin and Schulkind, 1997a, Rubin and Schulkind, 1997b, Schuman and Corning, 2014). In the second technique, which we will refer to under the umbrella of the important memories method, participants are asked to report particularly notable memories. Examples of memory assessments focusing on important memories include, for instance, queries for important memories (or the most important memories) from participants’ lives (e.g., Cuervo-Lombard et al., 2007, Glück and Bluck, 2007, Rubin and Schulkind, 1997b) and queries for especially vivid memories (e.g., Benson et al., 1992, Fitzgerald, 1988, Robinson and Taylor, 1998). We also include in this category cases in which participants were asked to simply freely recall autobiographical memories, with no explicit instruction that these memories should be important (e.g., Conway and Holmes, 2004, Demiray et al., 2009, Rabbitt and Winthorpe, 1988), as we suspect that the search process triggered through such free-recall methods is far more similar to the search process triggered through the important memory method than the cue word method (see below).

The salient distinction between these two classes of cueing techniques concerns the retrieval strategies required by each. The cue word method is held to instigate an associative, bottom-up search process (Crovitz & Schiffman, 1974), while the important memories method involves a strategic, top-down search, structured around important memories in particular. This has implications for the nature of the autobiographical memories produced through each method, with the cue word method yielding a putatively unbiased sampling of autobiographical memories over the lifespan (Crovitz & Schiffman, 1974), while the important memories method yields a focus on the most significant memories of one's life. Memories elicited through the important memory method are, correspondingly, more closely related to meaning-making processes and personal identity (e.g., Glück & Bluck, 2007).

It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that neither the bump, nor the broader distribution of memories across the lifespan, is identical across these two cueing methods. First, the bump is larger in the important memories method. Second, word-cued memories, correspondingly, exhibit a sizable recency effect which is, at best, drastically attenuated in important memories (Fitzgerald, 1988, Fromholt et al., 2003, Rubin and Schulkind, 1997b). Here we draw attention to another difference between the bumps found through each method, one which has been little studied. This difference concerns the temporal location of the bump. As we will document in the current review, the location of the bump varies across the cue word and important memories methods. These disparate locations of the bump hold implications for theoretical accounts of the effect. Therefore, we will go on to re-evaluate existing accounts in light of this under-acknowledged sensitivity of the location of the bump to cueing method.

The disparate locations of the bump across cueing methods has generally gone unrecognized or unacknowledged in the literature, as authors of textbooks in cognitive psychology (e.g., Eysenck and Keane, 2010, Goldstein, 2008, Rathbone et al., 2012) and academic articles (e.g., Bohn and Berntsen, 2011, Dickson et al., 2011, Habermas, 2007, Koppel and Berntsen, 2014, Morrison and Conway, 2010, Schrauf and Hoffman, 2007, Shimizu et al., 2012, Thomsen et al., 2011, Webster and Gould, 2007) usually describe the bump as a unitary phenomenon, most often citing the ages of approximately 15–30 as representing the bump period.

To be sure, there has been some acknowledgement of the divergent locations of the bump. Most notably, Rubin and Schulkind (1997b) culled autobiographical memories through both cue words and by asking participants to report five of the most important events of their lives. They found that, while the bump for word-cued memories stretched from ages 10 to 29, the bump for most important memories was concentrated in the 20–29 range (for other references to this finding, see also Janssen et al., 2011, Janssen and Murre, 2008, Janssen et al., 2011, Kawasaki et al., 2011, Maki et al., 2013).

However, to this point, no systematic reviews have followed up on these isolated findings and observations. The lack of a systematic review illustrating the sensitivity of the bump's location to cueing method may be why most researchers fail to note this effect.

Additionally, prior researchers have not precisely isolated the age ranges over which the individual bumps in each method have been found across the literature, nor have they fully grappled with the theoretical implications of these divergent bumps. In light of these considerations, there is a need for: (1) A corrective to the widespread oversimplification of the bump's location as being unitary, including a systematic demonstration of the actual location of the bump as found through both the cue word and important memories methods, and (2) a thorough reckoning of the implications of the varying locations of the bump for existing theoretical accounts of the effect.

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  Research on autobiographical memory loss in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by conflicting findings concerning a possible sparing of older memories. The literature shows evidence for both a negative temporal gradient, a flat gradient and a reminiscence bump – that is, a disproportionally high frequency of memories from early adulthood relative to surrounding periods. Here, we expanded the number of lifetime periods of the Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI; Kopelman, Wilson & Baddeley, 1989, 1990) from the standard three to seven in order to increase the sensitivity of the test to variations in the temporal distribution of autobiographical memories across the life span. Twenty-five older adults diagnosed with AD (MMMSE = 21.16, SD = 5.08) and a matched sample of 30 healthy, older adults were assessed. The temporal distribution for personal semantic information in AD showed a temporal gradient steadily decreasing from middle childhood to present life, consistent with predictions derived from consolidation theories. In comparison, the temporal distribution of incidents/episodic memories produced by AD patients in response to the expanded AMI showed a predominance of autobiographical memories from age 6 to 30, followed by a steep drop in memory referring to events that had occurred after age 30. This distribution challenges standard theories of retrograde amnesia in AD by showing neither a temporal gradient, decreasing progressively from early to later life, nor a flat gradient. In contrast, the distribution is consistent with the reminiscence bump identified in autobiographical memory research. Schematization and retrieval support provided by cultural life scripts are discussed.

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  Individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders face profound challenges as they attempt to maintain identity through the course of illness. Narrative identity—the study of internalized, evolving life stories—provides a rich theoretical and empirical perspective on these challenges. Based on evidence from a systematic review of narrative identity in the psychosis spectrum (30 studies, combined N = 3859), we argue that the narrative identities of individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders are distinguished by three features: disjointed structure, a focus on suffering, and detached narration. Psychotic disorders typically begin to emerge during adolescence and emerging adulthood, which are formative developmental stages for narrative identity, so it is particularly informative to understand identity disturbances from a developmental perspective. We propose a developmental model in which a focus on suffering emerges in childhood; disjointed structure emerges in middle and late adolescence; and detached narration emerges before or around the time of a first psychotic episode. Further research with imminent risk and early course psychosis populations would be needed to test these predictions. The disrupted life stories of individuals on the psychosis spectrum provide multiple rich avenues for further research to understand narrative self-disturbances.

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  The COVID-19 Pandemic is unique in its near universal scope and in the way that it has changed our lives. These facts suggest that it might also be unique in its effects on memory. A framework outlined in this article, Transition Theory, is used to explicate the mnemonically relevant ways in which the onset of the Pandemic differs from other personal and collective transitions and how the Pandemic Period might differ from other personally-defined and historically-defined autobiographical periods. Transition Theory also provides the basis for several predictions. Specifically, it predicts (a) a COVID bump (an increase in availability of event memories at the outset of the Pandemic) followed by (b) a lockdown dip (a decrease in availability of event memories from lockdown periods compared to other stable periods). It also predicts that (c) people may consider the Pandemic an important chapter in their life stories, but only when there is little continuity between their pre-Pandemic and post-Pandemic lives. Time will tell whether these predictions pan out. However, it is not too soon to highlight those aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic that are likely to shape our personal and collective memories of this very unusual historical period.

• I can still see, hear and smell the fire: Cognitive, emotional and personal consequences of a natural disaster, and the impact of evacuation

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  We investigated the effects of evacuation experience on autobiographical memory, sensory-perceptual re-experiencing, emotions, and personal consequentiality of a natural disaster one year after. A total of 601 individuals participated, living nearby the area of the largest fire in modern times in Sweden. It was shown that evacuated (first-hand experience) compared to not-evacuated (second-hand experience) participants thought and talked more about the fire. Evacuated residents also mentally traveled back and re-lived the disaster more; as well as saw the fire, heard its sound, smelled it more, and felt more anxious, enraged, and emotionally strong. Moreover, evacuated compared to not-evacuated participants estimated that their life and view of the world had changed due to the natural disaster. All this suggests that the psychology of dramatically charged events, such as natural disasters, differs notably between individuals “being there” and those “hearing the news”, indicating a factual flashbulb memory as a result of the first-hand experience.

• Not “WEIRD” but Truly Different: Cultural Life Scripts and Autobiographical Memory in Indigenous Australia

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  This exploratory study examines the structure of cultural life scripts (CLS) and autobiographical memories in a group of 13 non-WEIRD (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic) Nunggubuyu from Australia. Participants provided a CLS and reported the events’ expected timing and valence; and their seven most important memories, the age at the events and their valence. The CLS and important memories consisted mainly of positive events happening in early youth, but there was also a notable bump with positive events later in life. Results provide evidence for the important role of grandmothers in the Nunggubuyu culture, as both in the CLSs and in autobiographical memories, many events related to learning about Nunggubuyu culture as a child, and grandmothers teaching the community and especially children. Importantly, the results highlight that societal and cultural structures that differ from those in WEIRD communities may result in differences in CLS and in autobiographical memory recall.

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