Effects of Interviewer Age on the Reminiscence Bump in Older adults’ Autobiographical Memories

ABSTRACT

Introduction

This study aims to investigate whether the reminiscence bump in older adults’ autobiographical memory is influenced by the interviewer’s age. Methods: I arranged four interviewer.

Conditions

child, university student, middle-aged adult, and older adult. The participating older adults were asked individually to describe three memories and the age at which the event occurred. I analyzed the temporal distribution of the bumps and the recall order.

Results

The results indicate that the interviewer’s age, especially the child interviewers were influenced the temporal location of the reminiscence bump. Conclusion: This study discusses the implications of these findings for older adults’ social communication processes.

Acknowledgments

I thank Bunto, Nene, and Waka for performing the child interviewers during the main and pilot experiments. I also thank all the study participants. I am also grateful to Namiko Kubo-Kawai, Masako Akahoshi-Kamiya, Miho Funatani, Ryo Ookubo, Kei Kuratomi, Hideaki Shimada, Taro Hirashima, Kazumi Ogawa, Megumi Tabuchi, Etsuko Harada and Asako Miura for their comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Aichi Shukutoku University under Grant 16TT11.