The cultural life script and life story chapters contribute to the reminiscence bump

Abstract

A total of 59 older Danes recorded five life story memories. They divided their life story into chapters and provided their age for the start and end of each chapter. Life story memories were coded for whether they were placed at the start or end of chapters and for their correspondence to the cultural life script. Chapters and life story memories showed a bump in terms of an increased recall of life story memories and chapters between ages 6 and 30. Chapter start and end memories, more frequently than other memories, referred to prominent cultural life script events. The bump was significantly stronger for memories that referred to both prominent cultural life script events and chapter starts or ends. The findings suggest that the cultural life script helps to identify beginning and ends of chapters in autobiographical memory, and that both the cultural life script and organisation in terms of chapters influence the recall of life story memories and may help to explain the bump.

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