Reminiscence

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Reminiscence is the act of recollecting past experiences or events. An example of the typical use of reminiscence is when people share their personal stories with others or allows other people to live vicariously through stories of family, friends, and acquaintances while gaining an authentic meaningful relationship with the people. [1] An example of reminiscence may be grandparents remembering past events with friends or their grandchildren, sharing their individual experience of what the past was like.

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Psychological usage

Reminiscence therapy

Reminiscence can be defined as the act or process of recalling past experiences, events, or memories. Anyone can reminiscence about the past or a certain event, but reminiscence is often used in the older population, particularly the elderly population with forms of dementia as a therapeutic tool. This type of reminiscence is called reminiscence therapy. Reminiscence therapy is a non-pharmacological intervention that improves self-esteem and provides older patients with a sense of fulfillment and comfort as they look back at their lives. Although reminiscing involves recalling past events, it encourages older patients to communicate and interact with a listener in the present. Reminiscence sessions may be formal, informal, one-on-one, or in a group setting (Anon). Reminiscence therapy typically uses aids of tangible prompts such as photographs, household and other familiar items from the past, music and archive sound recordings (NCBI).

Dr. Robert Butler (1927–2010) is the accredited psychiatrist who first thought that reminiscing could be therapeutic. [2] Butler, a psychiatrist with a specialty in geriatric medicine, first spoke of the idea of reminiscence and life review when he published an original article “The Life Review: An Interpretation of Reminiscence in the Aged” (Achenbaum, 2018). [3]

Elderly patients with certain forms of dementia may not be able to remember what they had for lunch the previous day, but they will most likely remember their wedding day or they day their child was born. Reminiscence therapy uses this ability to recall events in the long term even when the patient's short-term memory may be declining.[ citation needed ]

Reminiscence therapy has been shown to have many benefits for aging adults, the most significant being the alleviation of symptoms of depression, though improvements to general well-being, ego-integrity, sense of purpose in life, cognitive performance, social integration, and death preparation have been noted as well. [4] Numerous causes have been posited, from the value of finding meaning and coherence in one's life, [5] the resolution of old conflicts, [6] and the reinforcement of a sense of continuity. [7]

In the later stages of dementia reminiscence therapy may become more difficult, but improvements to mood and happiness have been observed in controlled trials. [8]

The best way for reminiscence therapy to work is through the senses. Smell, touch, taste, sound, and sight are all great ways to try to get patients to recall memories. If one sense isn't working then maybe the next sense will do the trick.[ citation needed ]

In psychology, and more specifically cognitive psychology, the word reminiscence is used in a different way than the common conversational use. The study of reminiscence has a long history, which is shortly described in Eysenck and Frith (1977, chapter 1):

Reminiscence is a technical term, coined by Ballard in 1913, denoting improvement in the performance of a partially learned act that occurs while the subject is resting, that is, not performing the act in question. (Eysenck and Frith, 1977, page 3). [9]

The reality of reminiscence was first experimentally demonstrated by Oehrn (1896). In experiments on reminiscence the same task is always administered twice or more. One is mainly interested in the effect of the rest periods between the tasks. Learning might not be apparent within a task but it may be across tasks. [10]

Reminiscing also contributes towards consolidation of memory, acting as a form of review. [11] By returning to the memory and recalling it, reminiscence functions as spaced practice (see Spacing effect). Moreover, reminiscence with someone else can recalibrate one's memory by adjusting how one perceived the given experience, much like being tested. [12]

A 2018 Cochrane review found probable benefits for cognition, mood and communication depending on setting in dementia patients but inconsistencies in interventions made drawing further conclusions impractical. [13]

Reminiscence bump

People have a stronger recollection of memories from their late teens and young adult years. In cognitive psychological this is called the reminiscence bump.

The reminiscence bump is a phenomenon that naturally occurs when elderly people can remember the most about their lives when they were between the ages of 10 and 30 years old. Even for patients with dementia, the years during the reminiscence bump remain intact (until their illness has become very advanced) and can be easily recalled with some simple triggers like pictures or songs. (Psychology Today, 2018).

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dementia</span> Long-term brain disorders causing impaired memory, thinking and behavior

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art therapy</span> Creation of art to improve mental health

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reminiscence bump</span> Memory phenomenon related to human aging

The reminiscence bump is the tendency for older adults to have increased or enhanced recollection for events that occurred during their adolescence and early adulthood. It was identified through the study of autobiographical memory and the subsequent plotting of the age of encoding of memories to form the lifespan retrieval curve.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reminiscence therapy</span> Intervention technique with brain-injured patients

Reminiscence therapy is used to counsel and support older people, and is an intervention technique with brain-injured patients and those who appear to have "Alzheimer's and other forms of cognitive disease."

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Autobiographical memory (AM) is a memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an individual's life, based on a combination of episodic and semantic memory. It is thus a type of explicit memory.

Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases, but it can also be temporarily caused by the use of various sedative and hypnotic drugs. The memory can be either wholly or partially lost due to the extent of damage that is caused.

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A personal-event memory is an individual's memory of an event from a certain moment of time. Its defining characteristics are that it is for a specific event; includes vivid multi-sensory elements ; is usually recalled in detail; and is usually believed by the individual to be an accurate representation of the event.

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For patients with Alzheimer's disease, music therapy provides a beneficial interaction between a patient and an individualized musical regimen and has been shown to increase cognition and slow the deterioration of memory loss. Music therapy is a clinical and evidence-based intervention that involves music in some capacity and includes both a participant and a music therapist who have completed an accredited music therapy program.

Music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) refer to the recollection of personal experiences or past events that are triggered when hearing music or some musical stimulus. While there is a degree of inter-individual variation in music listening patterns and evoked responses, MEAMs are generally triggered in response to a wide variety of music, often popular or classical genres, and are estimated to occur in the range from one to a few times per day, regardless of formal instrumental practice or music lessons. Consistent with the hallmarks of general autobiographical memories, everyday MEAMs similarly exhibit a recency effect, a reminiscence bump, and childhood amnesia, encoding autobiographical knowledge at several levels of specificity and across several common social and situational contexts. The phenomenon of MEAMs has been widely studied in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and musicology. In recent years, the subject has garnered significant interest from researchers and the general public alike due to music's capacity to evoke vivid, emotional, and episodically rich autobiographical memories.

References

  1. ↑ "Linking the Past to the Present - The Benefits of Reminiscing". www.caregiver.com. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  2. ↑ Achenbaum, W. Andrew (2014-02-01). "Robert N. Butler, MD (January 21, 1927–July 4, 2010): Visionary Leader". The Gerontologist. 54 (1): 6–12. doi:10.1093/geront/gnt015. ISSN   0016-9013. PMID   23512769.
  3. ↑ Butler, Robert N. (1963). "The Life Review: An Interpretation of Reminiscence in the Aged". Psychiatry. 26 (1): 65–76. doi:10.1080/00332747.1963.11023339. ISSN   0033-2747. PMID   14017386.
  4. ↑ Pinquart, Martin; Forstmeier, Simon (2012-07-01). "Effects of reminiscence interventions on psychosocial outcomes: A meta-analysis". Aging & Mental Health. 16 (5): 541–558. doi:10.1080/13607863.2011.651434. ISSN   1360-7863. PMID   22304736. S2CID   28035958.
  5. ↑ Watt, L. M.; Cappeliez, P. (2010-09-06). "Integrative and instrumental reminiscence therapies for depression in older adults: Intervention strategies and treatment effectiveness". Aging & Mental Health. 4 (2): 166–177. doi:10.1080/13607860050008691. ISSN   1360-7863. S2CID   13840988.
  6. ↑ Butler, Robert N. (1974-12-01). "Successful Aging and the Role of the Life Review*". Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 22 (12): 529–535. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.1974.tb04823.x. PMID   4420325. S2CID   5979266.
  7. ↑ Parker, Rhonda G. (1999). "Reminiscence as Continuity: Comparison of Young and Older Adults". Journal of Clinical Geropsychology. 5 (2): 147–157. doi:10.1023/A:1022931111622. S2CID   141231079.
  8. ↑ Pittiglio, Laura (2000-11-01). "Use of Reminiscence Therapy in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease". Lippincott's Case Management. 5 (6): 216–220. doi:10.1097/00129234-200011000-00002. ISSN   1529-7764. PMID   16398000.
  9. ↑ "Reminiscence, Motivation, and Personality - A Case Study in | Hans Eysenck | Springer". www.springer.com. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  10. ↑ Axel Oehrn. Experimentelle Studien zur Individualpsychologie... (in German).
  11. ↑ "How Is Information Consolidated Into Long-Term Memory?". Verywell. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
  12. ↑ Roediger III, Henry L.; McDaniel, Mark A. (2014). Make It Stick. US: Belknap Press. p. 21. ISBN   978-0674729018.
  13. ↑ Woods, Bob; O'Philbin, Laura; Farrell, Emma M.; Spector, Aimee E.; Orrell, Martin (1 March 2018). "Reminiscence therapy for dementia". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2018 (3): CD001120. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001120.pub3. ISSN   1469-493X. PMC   6494367 . PMID   29493789.

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