TORONTO — What happens when you put a group of retired men and women together for a study and ask them about their most cherished memories?
For the most part, you’d hear them recount moments from the first 25 years of their lives. A new study suggests that before we’ve neared three decades of living, we’ve already made our most important memories.
Scientists at the University of New Hampshire rounded up 34 seniors from a retirement community, all between the ages of 59 to 92 years old. Then they asked the group to tell their life stories — the researchers say their study is the first to use a “naturalistic approach” by collecting free-flowing stories.
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Overwhelmingly, it was the life transitions that came out as key memories the seniors carried with them. Major milestones like graduating from university, leaving home, a first job, marriage and even becoming a parent.
Many of these life changes occurred early in life.
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“When people look back over their lives and recount their most important memories, most divide their life stories into chapters defined by important moments that are universal for many,” Kristina Steiner, a doctoral student in psychology at UNH and the study’s lead researcher, said in a statement.
Research on memories always comes back to a “reminiscence bump” — that is, older people tend to hang onto memories made between the ages of 15 and 30 whether the experiences are good or bad. (In this case, researchers found a prominent “bump” between the ages of 17 and 24.)
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Steiner wanted to know why this bump exists.
“Many studies have consistently found that when adults are asked to think about their lives and report memories, remembered events occurring between the ages of 15 to 30 are over-represented. I wanted to know why this might be. Why don’t adults report more memories from the ages of 30 to 70? What is it about the ages of 15 to 30 that make them so much more memorable?” Steiner asked.
It could be that a big chunk of our lives’ narratives are laid out during these pivotal years. Clinical therapists even draw on our life narratives to get a pulse on our well-being and psychological adjustment as adults, Steiner said.
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
Follow @Carmen_Chai
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