This document summarizes a proposed study that examines the impact of group immigration on the reminiscence bump phenomenon. The study would involve 120 Latin American immigrants aged 40-70 who would recall autobiographical memories from their earliest memory to present day. Participants would be divided based on whether they immigrated alone or with family, and at different ages (20-25, 26-30, 31-35). The study aims to determine if those who immigrated with family would recall more memories from the immigration period, compared to those who immigrated alone, due to increased social interaction and memory rehearsal among family members. Results would be analyzed to look for differences in memory detail, search strategies, emotion, and identification of transitional events

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Running Head: GROUP IMMIGRATION REMINISCENCE BUMP
Impact of Group Immigration on the Reminiscence Bump
Nadejda Krystov
DePaul University

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Abstract
Immigration is extremely memorable due to its highly social nature. An increased
recall for memories of events occurring around the period of immigration could be
explained by the rehearsal that occurs throughout interaction between family members.
One hundred-and-twenty Latin American immigrants ages 35-40 recalled the story of
their lives starting at the earliest memory and ending with present day. Half of the
participants will have immigrated with their families and half will have immigrated by
themselves at the ages of 20-22, 24-28 and 34-38. The participants’ responses will be
coded for the amount of detail, emotional valence, status as transitional event and
backwards/forwards search strategy. The memories associated with immigration will not
differ from other memories on any of these dimensions. The reminiscence bump in
people who will have immigrated with their families can be attributed to constant
rehearsal through discussion of events between family members. Those participants who
will have immigrated alone will have experienced less of an increase in recall of events
surrounding immigration than those participants who will have immigrated with their
families.

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The Impact of Group Immigration on the Reminiscence Bump
Autobiographical memory is an important topic of study, because without it we
may still be able to recall facts, but would be unable to convey a sense of subjectivity
(Rybash, 1999). This paper looks at the distribution of episodic memories called the
reminiscence bump, or the tendency to recall more memories that occurred at ages 10-30.
There are three divisions of distribution of memories throughout the lifespan as
identified by Rubin and others with the lifespan retrieval curve: infantile amnesia, the
reminiscence bump and a retention effect (Janssen, 2005). Infantile amnesia is the
inability to remember anything that occurs before the age of three to four. The
reminiscence bump is manifested as increased recall of memories occurring between the
ages of 10-30. The retention effect can be described as an increased recall for memories
for the last decade of life, but a progressively decreasing recall for subsequent decades.
A unique feature of human cognition is the fact that these divisions are consistent
from individual to individual, with the exception of special circumstances such as
traumatic events (Conway & Haque, 1999). Schrauf and Rubin define trauma as “a
violent shock to the mental organism, which overtaxes normal abilities to assimilate and
integrate the experience (2001).”
The reminiscence bump phenomenon is of particular interest in this paper. There
are several theories that explain the factors behind the occurrence of the reminiscence
bump. Fitzgerald posed a theory called the “self-narrative hypothesis” suggesting that
the ages 10-30 serve as an a turning point at which we begin our adult lives
(Rybash,1999). This is why more memories of this period are recalled.

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Another theory states that older adults experience a reminiscence bump because of an
age-related reduction in the retention mechanism of autobiographical recall, meaning that
adults have a small number of recently-stored memories, because of an inability to
integrate, encode and retrieve new information (Rybash, 1999). This theory is supported
by research conducted by Rubin, which concluded that adults only show a reminiscence
bump if they are not allowed to talk about the last two to three years of their life.
Schrauf and Rubin found that immigrants who immigrated after age 10-30
recalled more memories from the period of immigration rather than adolescence and
young adulthood. The people who immigrated after the typical reminiscence bump
period (after the age of 30) recalled more events occurring around the time of
immigration (Schrauf & Rubin, 2001).
The research that has looked into the formation of the reminiscence bump has
shown that this distribution of memories does not occur at the same age for everybody
(Jansari & Parkin, 1996).
Because immigration can be considered a traumatic event followed by an
extensive latency period, research has shown that the reminiscence bump can shift for
immigrants. The reminiscence bump can also shift for certain people, depending on
factors such as culture, age and experience (Janssen et al., 2005). This phenomenon has
also been observed in survivors of breast cancer (Baker, 2006).. The participants
recalled more memories from around the time they became diagnosed with breast cancer.
The shared reality theory (Hardin & Higgins) states that no experience is
solidified unless it is an experience shared by more than one person. According to this
theory no event is truly remembered unless it is shared by people. This research is

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consistent with the hypothesis of this paper, because it suggests that without social
interaction (which involves rehearsal of the memory) a memory is not truly formed.
This is because the memory has not been rehearsed with other people and has therefore
not been solidified.
The aim of this paper is to answer the following question: will the participants
who immigrated alone recall more memories around the time of immigration compared to
the ten years before and after immigration? Will there be a difference between the recall
patterns of participants who immigrated alone verses with their family? According to the
shared reality theory the reminiscence bump for immigrants who immigrated with family
should have a higher peak (when plotted on a graph).
In this experiment participants are “divided” by age and group versus solo
immigration. The participants narrate their lives from their earliest memory to present
day and their responses will be coded for the amount of detail, emotional valence, status
as transitional event and backwards/forwards search strategy. This research tests the
hypothesis by comparing the data for those participants who immigrated solo vs. those
who immigrated with their families.
Method
The methods in the experiment will be similar to that used by Schrauf and Rubin (2001)
in their study on Latin American immigrants.
Participants
One hundred and twenty older adults (60 female and 60 male) ages 40-70, will participate
in this study. The participants are all going to be immigrants from Latin American

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countries. Forty of the participants will have immigrated at the ages of 20-25, forty will
have immigrated at ages 26-30 and forty will have immigrated at ages 31-35.
Procedures
Narrative interviews would be conducted by a bilingual interviewer either at the
local university psychology lab or at the home of the participant, depending on the
participants’ preference.
Participants would be asked to recall the story of their lives while being recorded
by the experimenter. The experimenter was trained to make no comments, not prompt
memories and ask no questions. The participants will talk for 30-45 minutes, building a
story in chronological order and naturally indicated the ending.
Results
A 2 (immigration in group vs. alone) X 3 (immigration: early, middle, late)
ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the data. For the purposes of analysis the
participants were separated into groups according to whether they immigrated alone or in
a group. Exactly half of the participants immigrated in a group and half immigrated
alone. After this distinction is made the participants are further separated into groups
according to the age of immigration: early immigrators (age 20-25), middle immigrators
(age 26-30) and late immigrators (age 31-35).
The number of memories would be significantly higher during the period of
immigration compared to the ten-year period following it. Also the number of memories
about immigration outnumber the ten years of memories in the homeland. Those who
immigrated alone showed a reminiscence bump between the ages of 10-30. This
difference approaches significance and shows that the decade before immigration for

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early immigrators overlaps with the natural reminiscence bump. Again this would only
apply to participants who immigrated with their families.
The following four analyses are modeled on Fromholt and Larsen (1991).
Amount of detail
The following procedure will be used to code the memories for amount of detail:
1=events reported in one single sentence, 2=events reported with three additional pieces
of information and 3=Events reported with more elaborate content. It will be predicted
that for both immigrants who will have immigrated alone and those who will have
immigrated in a group, memories of the time of immigration will be recalled in more
detail. A 2X3 ANOVA showed no significant difference for these means during a ten-
year period. This means that memories from across the lifespan are recalled with about
the same amount of detail for both the participants who immigrated with their families
and those who immigrated alone.
Backward versus forward search
Even though participants mostly told their stories in chronological order, they eventually
looked to events in previous years. Therefore each memory was coded relative to the
previous memory as either forward in time, backward in time or simultaneous with the
preceding memory. There was no particular period of life during which backwards
searching was used. A 2X3 ANOVA will be used to analyze the data. It will be
predicted that the same amount of backward and forward search strategies will be
employed throughout the lifespan.
Emotion

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Memories were rated for emotional valence with (1) being negative (2) being neutral and
(3) being positive tone. Coding for an emotional response would require an implicit or
explicit emotional expression to go together with the memory. An affect score was
generated for memories emotionally marked versus unmarked memories and another
affect score for emotional valence. A 2X3 ANOVA will be used to evaluate the data. I
predict the memories around the time of immigration will be recalled with more emotion
than memories before and after immigration. This effect is more robust in the group that
immigrated with their families versus alone.
Transitional events
Memories would be coded as representing a transitional even if the event set the stage for
subsequent events or brought about a significant change in participant’s life. A score of
(1) indicated a transitional event and (0) indicated a non-transitional event. A 2X3
ANOVA was used to analyze the data. It is predicted that the memories of the time of
immigration will be more recalled as transitional events compared to the ten years before
and after immigration.
Discussion
When leaving one’s country of origin people have an increased need for the
support of their family members. This is why in most cases people immigrate in families
rather than alone. Due to the social nature of immigration, rehearsal or reliving of these
events through discussing them with family members is an inevitable part of the
experience. It is this social aspect that is the cause of the increased recall of memories
that occurred around the time of immigration.

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Since the participants who immigrated on their own did not show a shift in the
reminiscence bump, the results indicate that the social aspect of immigration is a
necessary component for a shift to occur in the reminiscence bump. One of the
weaknesses of this study is the fact that the researchers have no way of verifying the
correctness of the date and content of memories. Another weakness is the recency
effect: people remember more from the last few years of their life. This effect has the
potential of distorting the memory recall curve.
The existing research could take a new direction by looking into the reminiscence
bump in people who immigrated as children. The methodology for this experiment
would utilize the “free-recall” strategy instead of “narrative” strategy. The goal of this
research would be to see whether the reminiscence bump will also shift in these
immigrants to an earlier period in their lives. This paper advances the current state of
research by supporting the notion that rehearsal is a vital causal factor in increased recall
of memories for a certain period in time.

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References
Baker, S.H. (2006). Autobiographical memory recall in long-term breast cancer
survivors: Reminiscence and psychological growth. Dissertation Abstracts
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Jansari, A., & Parkin, A. J. (1996).Things that go bump in your life: Explaining the
reminiscence bump in autobiographical memory. Psychology and Aging, 11, 85-
91.
Janssen, S.M., Chessa, A.G., & Jaap M.J. (2005). The reminiscence bump in
autobiographical memory: Effects of age, gender, education, and culture.
Memory. 13, 658-668.
Rybash, J.M. (1999). Aging and Autobiographical memory: The long and bumpy road.
Journal of Adult Development, 6, 1-8.
Schrauf, R.W., & Rubin, D.C., (2001). Effects of voluntary immigration on the
distribution of autobiographical memory over the lifespan. Applied Cognitive
Psychology. 15, 75-88.

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