Of course, not everybody has time or the opportunity to party, or remembers their youth with perfect pleasure. But why do many of us still recall so vividly and tell stories of our hedonistic younger days? Why do such memories remain rosy and important touchstones?
The first reason is that memory is selective. To remember an experience or event we need to pay attention to it. Then we need to rehearse it by thinking or talking about it. Events that are “encoded” in this way are “stored” in our long-term memory.
But not everything we do, say or feel everyday is encoded and stored in memory. We are more likely to encode events that stand out, are highly emotional, mark first-time experiences or represent big changes in our lives: your first ever muddy music festival or a party that got wonderfully out of control.
Recalling or “retrieving” events from our long-term memory also is motivated. By motivated we mean that remembering some events but not others serves a psychological purpose. We tend to remember events from the past that are consistent with how we want to see ourselves now. Our sense of identity and memories are completely intertwined. [...]
The second reason is a phenomenon known as “the reminiscence bump”. When we look back over the past, we don’t remember an equal number of events across our lives. Instead, we remember more from our teenage and early adult years.
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