University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Psychology, Department of Department of Psychology 10-2012 THE REMINISCENCE EFFECT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND TESTS OF ITS PROMINENT ACCOUNTS Justin T. Coleman University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychdiss Part of the Cognition and Perception Commons Coleman, Justin T., "THE REMINISCENCE EFFECT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND TESTS OF ITS PROMINENT ACCOUNTS" (2012). Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology. 99. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/psychdiss/99 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Student Research: Department of Psychology by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE REMINISCENCE EFFECT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND TESTS OF ITS PROMINENT ACCOUNTS by Justin T. Coleman A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: Psychology Under the Supervision of Professor Robert F. Belli Lincoln, Nebraska November, 2012 THE REMINISCENCE EFFECT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY AND TESTS OF ITS PROMINENT ACCOUNTS Justin T. Coleman, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2012 Adviser: Robert F. Belli The reminiscence effect, in which people aged 40 and over remember more autobiographical memories from between ages 10 to 30 than from adjacent periods, producing a “bump” in lifespan distributions, is a highly robust effect. When it was discovered to occur for highly positive emotional memories, but not negative ones, the cultural life script account of reminiscence was proposed. The cultural life script account asserts that individuals possess scripts for important events in the normative life that structure autobiographical recall. The reminiscence effect is explained by the fact that in life scripts, positive events have highly prescribed timings and cluster between ages 10 and 30, while negative events, which do not have prescribed timings, are more evenly distributed across the lifespan. The life story account outlines additional properties of bump memories. The life story account attributes reminiscence to the differential recall of life story events, i.e., events that provide coherence to one’s life story. Four studies are reported testing these accounts. Chapter 2 reports a test of the life script with African Americans. Research suggests that life scripts are highly stable, varying little across cultures. The findings indicate that, overall, the properties of the life script were replicated. However, minor cross-cultural differences similar to those observed in prior research were exacerbated with a minority sample. In Chapter 3, the effect of minority status on the recall of emotionally negative memories is examined. Contrary to expectations, the findings failed to contradict the predictions of either account of reminiscence. In Chapter 4, the typicality effect is tested with life scripts in an attempt to present an additional class of evidence for their existence. Finally, in Chapter 5, the life story account is tested. The findings support the life story account by showing that the bump occurs for life story, but not non-life story, events. These studies add to our understanding of the cultural life script and life story accounts and the reminiscence effect in autobiographical memory. iv Contents CHAPTER 1 ........................................................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF AM ..................... 6 1. EARLY RESEARCH ON TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF AM ..................... 6 2. THE DISCOVERY OF THE REMINISCENCE EFFECT .................................. 10 REVIEW OF REMINISCENCE EFFECT RESEARCH ............................................. 12 1. EARLY ACCOUNTS OF THE REMINISCENCE EFFECT .............................. 12 2. TOWARDS CURRENT PROMINENT ACCOUNTS OF REMINISCENCE.... 15 3. THE RECALL OF HIGHLY EMOTIONAL MEMORIES ................................. 20 4. THE CULTURAL LIFE SCRIPT ACCOUNT .................................................... 21 5. THE LIFE STORY ACCOUNT ........................................................................... 28 6. CROSS-CULTURAL REMINISCENCE EFFECT RESEARCH ....................... 34 7. REVIEW ON THE RECALL OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL MEMORIES ..... 43 THE CURRENT STUDIES .......................................................................................... 47 CHAPTER 2 ......................................................................................................................51 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 51 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 52 METHOD ..................................................................................................................... 57 PARTICIPANTS ...................................................................................................... 57 v MATERIALS ............................................................................................................ 58 PROCEDURE ........................................................................................................... 60 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................... 60 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER 3 ......................................................................................................................80 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 80 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 81 METHOD ..................................................................................................................... 87 PARTICIPANTS ...................................................................................................... 87 MATERIALS ............................................................................................................ 87 PROCEDURE ........................................................................................................... 88 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................... 96 CHAPTER 4 ....................................................................................................................102 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ 102 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 103 EXPERIMENT 1 ........................................................................................................ 111 METHOD ................................................................................................................... 112 PARTICIPANTS .................................................................................................... 112 MATERIALS .......................................................................................................... 112 PROCEDURE ......................................................................................................... 115 vi RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 116 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 125 EXPERIMENT 2 ........................................................................................................ 128 METHOD ................................................................................................................... 129 PARTICIPANTS .................................................................................................... 129 MATERIALS .......................................................................................................... 129 PROCEDURE ......................................................................................................... 131 RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 132 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 136 GENERAL DISCUSSION ......................................................................................... 137 CHAPTER 5 ....................................................................................................................144 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ 144 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................