The Impact of Suppressing the Typical Life Events on the Reminiscence Bump

Abstract

Summary The aim of the study was to explore the impact of suppressing typical life events on the reminiscence bump in life script and autobiographical memory distributions. With an instruction to exclude typical life events, half of 142 participants older than 45 years (M age = 51.82, SD = 4.80) reported expected life events and the other half reported autobiographical memories. Age at event, importance, emotional valence, and intensity ratings were reported for each event. The reminiscence bump disappeared in autobiographical memory distribution. In life script distribution, it disappeared for the intervals between 21 and 30 years, whereas it reduced for age intervals 16–20 and 31–35 years. However, these intervals were not significantly different from the preceding and following ones regarding the number of reported events. Characteristics of typical life events and their corresponding lifetime period had a role in the emergence of the reminiscence bump. Results are discussed in terms of multiple accounts of the bump. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.