This study explored the distribution of important life events among immigrants using Transition Theory (Brown, 2012). Prior research highlighted event clustering around collective (Bohn & Habermas, 2016) and personal transitions (Schrauf & Rubin, 2001). We also examined whether there was an "immigration bump" in response to personal transitions of Turkish immigrants to Denmark. Seventy-three participants (Mage = 43.48) answered questionnaires on acculturation and social continuity, listed ten pre- and post-migration life events, and narrated their life stories. We hypothesized a higher memory clustering around migration, particularly post-migration, and expected relationships between social continuity, acculturation and clustering of events. In total, there were 699 events which showed peaks during emerging adulthood (reminiscience bump) and the year of migration (immigration bump). Social identity continuity positively impacted acculturation, particularly group membership after migration. Besides, close clustering of events to post-migration negatively influenced acculturation controlling for duration of stay in the migrated country.

Autobiographical memories rely on external objects to store and retrieve information, helping maintain connections with the past and create memory permanence. Tattoos, as memory objects, may uniquely affect how life events are recalled. This study examined 466 tattooed and 357 non-tattooed European adults, analyzing their descriptions of two significant life events using the LIWC text analysis tool. Preliminary results show that tattooed individuals used fewer words, adjectives, and positive emotion words, particularly in tattoo-related memories, suggesting that tattoos influence memory recall and may serve as a form of nonverbal communication.

Many people subjectively reported poor everyday memory during the pandemic. Potential explanations include reduced social contact, exploration, variation in activities, and increased anxiety. This study measured perceptions of everyday memory during lockdown in relation to estimations of social contact, size of “life space”, and other factors. Towards the end of the UK lockdown period, 663 people completed an adaptation of the Everyday Memory Questionnaire, providing a subjective rating of memory for the previous month, as well as a rating of whether each aspect of memory was judged to have changed since the beginning of the pandemic. Over 50% of respondents reported worsening in memory. Memory scores were predicted by extent of daily movement and gender; reported reductions were significantly correlated with changes in social life, relationships, working practices, stress, rumination, and engagement with news. Results are discussed in relation to theory, as well as implications for life beyond the pandemic.

Flashbulb memories are vivid, long-lasting, confidently-held memories of where you were and what you were doing when you learned the news of an important public event. One model explaining flashbulb memory formation (Berntsen, 2009) argues that an event must have relevance to one’s social group in order to facilitate rehearsal and support the phenomenology of these memories. Recent cross-cultural work (Talarico, Bohn, & Wessel, 2019) has shown that nationality influences which newsworthy events are most likely to lead to individual flashbulb memories. In the current study, international undergraduate students attending college in the United States were primed with either their homeland identity or their American identity and then asked to spontaneously generate flashbulb memories. We expect that US-centric events will be more likely to be recalled by those primed with their American identity and events more central to their homeland to be recalled more readily when primed with that identity.