Introduction to the Cognitive Abilities Account for the Reminiscence Bump in the Temporal Distribution of Autobiographical Memory

What is it about?

People tend to recall more personal from adolescence and early adulthood than from other lifetime periods. This effect is called the reminiscence bump. The location of the reminiscence bump depends on the method that is used to gather the autobiographical memories. When they are given cue words and asked to describe the personal events that come to mind first, the reminiscence bump is located in the second decade of people's lives. However, when people are asked about the most important events from their lives, the reminiscence bump is located in the third decade. In this study, support is discussed for the cognitive abilities account, which argues that, because the memory system works more efficiently, more autobiographical memories are stored (or autobiographical memories are stored more strongly) in adolescence. This account aims to explain the reminiscence bump in the distribution of word-cued memories; the reminiscence bump in the distribution of important events may be explained better by other accounts.

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