Wolf Tabea, Zimprich Daniel
Developmental Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
Mem Cognit. 2020 May;48(4):607-622. doi: 10.3758/s13421-019-00994-6.
The reminiscence bump represents one of the most robust findings in autobiographical memory research. As such, it has led to a number of different explanatory accounts that aim to elucidate it. Because most of these accounts have received some empirical support, it has been assumed that they may equally contribute to the explanation of the reminiscence bump phenomenon. In the present study, we used a multilevel multinomial mixed-effects model to examine the predictive power of explanatory variables selected from different accounts simultaneously. Analyses were based on 2,813 autobiographical memories that 97 older adults aged between 60 and 88 years reported in response to 31 cue words. Overall, the predictor variables (i.e., first-time experience, importance and emotional valence) meaningfully distinguished memories from the reminiscence bump from memories from life periods before and after. These effects, however, did not always go into the hypothesized directions. In addition, results of a Commonality Analysis indicated that although the explanatory accounts considered in the present study draw on qualities of autobiographical memories (within-person effects), they might be more useful in explaining why individuals differ in the number of autobiographical memories reported from the reminiscence bump period (between-person effects). Taken together, our findings are in line with a more integrative view on the reminiscence bump that, additionally, emphasizes the individual (e.g., the life-story account).
记忆隆起是自传体记忆研究中最有力的发现之一。正因如此，它引发了许多不同的解释性观点，旨在对其进行阐释。由于这些观点大多都得到了一些实证支持，人们认为它们可能同样有助于解释记忆隆起现象。在本研究中，我们使用了一个多层次多项混合效应模型来同时检验从不同观点中选取的解释变量的预测能力。分析基于97名年龄在60至88岁之间的老年人针对31个提示词所报告的2813条自传体记忆。总体而言，预测变量（即首次经历、重要性和情感效价）能够有效地区分记忆隆起阶段的记忆与该阶段前后生活时期的记忆。然而，这些效应并不总是朝着假设的方向发展。此外，共同性分析的结果表明，尽管本研究中考虑的解释性观点借鉴了自传体记忆的特质（个体内部效应），但它们可能在解释为什么个体在记忆隆起阶段报告的自传体记忆数量存在差异（个体间效应）方面更有用。综上所述，我们的研究结果与对记忆隆起的一种更综合的观点一致，该观点还强调了个体因素（例如人生故事观点）。
