The characteristics of important autobiographical memories for Japanese junior high and high school students

Abstract

Autobiographical memory refers to the memories of personal events. Although autobiographical memory is assumed to be influenced by cultural, gender, and developmental differences, very few studies have examined the autobiographical memories of Japanese adolescents. Accordingly, a number of questions remain unanswered concerning the existence and nature of gender and developmental differences in the autobiographical memories of Japanese adolescents. We asked Japanese junior high and high school students to record their important autobiographical events, their ages when the events occurred, and the valence of the experience(i.e., positive, negative, mixed, and none/neutral).The respondents shared many events, with most related to school (e.g., entrance, graduation, and club activities).The responses for certain events indicated gender and/or developmental differences. More specifically, junior high and high school students tended to report that their most important events occurred at the ages of 12 and 15 years, respectively. However, irrespective of school level or gender, such peaks were only observed for events associated with positive and mixed (positive and negative)experiences.