Learning different languages, the order of which they are acquired, and the context of their use has not only important cognitive but also social implications (Dewaele, 2015). Our study investigates the age profile as well as emotional intensity, vividness, and valence of autobiographical memories across the lifespan. Using the Galton-Crovitz cueing technique in a web-based design (Crovitz & Schiffman, 1974; Galton 1879; Janssen et al., 2011), we examined English monolinguals as well as French, German, Polish, and Spanish bilinguals. We presented 16 cue words in counterbalanced order of language to elicit personal memories of the past and imagined future events. We replicated the reminiscence bump and recency effect for both L1 and LX, but with different age profiles. Generally, memories associated with extreme emotions (either very positive or very negative) were more often recalled in L1. The majority of memories were reported as being positive, encoded by LX, cued by L1, and recalled in L1. Overall, the language of recall tended to match the language of cue, though memories recalled in both languages were more likely to be cued by LX. The intensity of memories was not influenced by language of cue; however, memories encoded in both languages were reported as more intense compared to L1 or LX. Memories recalled in L1 were reported as less intense than those recalled in LX or both languages. Our results suggest that our autobiographical memories are profoundly shaped by the languages in which we encode, cue, and recall the events.
Crovitz, H. F., & Schiffman, H. (1974). Frequency of episodic memories as a function of their age. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 4(5), 517-518. Dewaele, J. M. (2015). From obscure echo to language of the heart: Multilinguals' language choices for (emotional) inner speech. Journal of Pragmatics, 87, 1-17. Galton, F. (1879). Psychometric experiments. Brain, 2, 149-162. Janssen, S. M., Rubin, D. C., & Jacques, P. L. S. (2011). The temporal distribution of autobiographical memory: changes in reliving and vividness over the life span do not explain the reminiscence bump. Memory & Cognition, 39(1), 1-11.
