Age of attaining adulthood and the period of reminiscence bump: a study of autobiographical memory amongst Bangladeshi immigrants in Britain

Older and younger groups of Bangladeshi immigrants in Britain recalled and dated autobiographical memories in response to cue words. The older group emigrated as adult and stayed in Britain for at least 10 years, while the younger group emigrated at a younger age and attained adulthood in Britain. Separate lifespan retrieval curves were constructed for the two groups by plotting memories in terms of the age-at-encoding. The curves showed differences in reminiscence period for the two groups: the older group had bump for 6-25 years, while the younger group had bump for 6-20 years. The variation in reminiscence periods in the older and younger groups was explained in terms of the participants' age of attaining adult identity in the distinct socio-cultural context of Bangladesh and Britain. The findings revealed that the memories retrieved from the Bangladeshi context were more likely to have interdependent self-focus, whereas the memories from from the British context wee more likely to have independent self-focus. The diverse soci0-cultural orientations prevailing in Bangladesh and Britain might have contributed to recalling memories with different self-focus.