From Memory to Meaning: A Systematic Review of Reminiscence Technologies in HCI

Paper Title

From Memory to Meaning: A Systematic Review of Reminiscence Technologies in HCI

Publication Info

• Topic area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) focused on technologies supporting reminiscence.
• Keywords: reminiscence, autobiographical memory, HCI, mnemonic cues, identity, social connection, problem solving, design mechanisms, systematic review.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: The field of reminiscence technologies lacks a systematic account of design principles, leading to fragmented conceptual frameworks and limited cumulative knowledge.
• Significance: Reminiscence plays a vital role in identity construction, emotional regulation, and social connection, making it crucial for aging populations, therapeutic contexts, and everyday meaning-making.
• Motivation and related work: Prior HCI work has explored creative systems for reminiscence, such as tangible artifacts, VR environments, and intelligent systems. However, these efforts often lack a shared vocabulary for comparison, overlook certain psychosocial functions, and fail to address emotionally complex or instrumental aspects of memory.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A cue-centered framework that organizes design mechanisms into a four-stage lifecycle: cue generation, augmentation, interaction, and sharing.
• Novelty:
  1. Mapping psychosocial functions addressed by reminiscence technologies, highlighting gaps such as limited focus on instrumental problem solving and complex emotions.
  2. Introducing a cue-centered framework for analyzing design mechanisms across diverse systems.
  3. Proposing future directions for designing technologies that engage with underexplored dimensions like emotional complexity and everyday challenges.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Systematic review of 60 peer-reviewed papers from leading HCI venues (2005–2025).
  • Coding psychosocial functions using established psychological frameworks (Webster’s Reminiscence Functions Scale and Westerhof’s tripartite model).
  • Iterative thematic analysis to identify recurring design mechanisms and organize them into the cue-centered framework.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Social and integrative functions dominate the field, with 68% of papers focusing on social connection and 73% on identity construction.
  • Instrumental functions, such as problem solving, are less addressed (38% overall, 10% as primary focus).
  • Visual and auditory cues are most common (90% and 50% of studies, respectively), while tactile, olfactory, and gustatory cues are underexplored.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • The cue-centered framework synthesizes fragmented design strategies, enabling systematic comparison and identifying gaps in existing work.
  • Highlights opportunities for engaging with complex emotions and instrumental reminiscence, areas often overlooked in prior research.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Reviewed studies span diverse user populations (general adults, older adults, families, people with dementia, visually impaired individuals) and settings (field studies, labs, remote contexts).
  • Analysis of mnemonic cue modalities and design mechanisms reveals patterns and underexplored areas.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited representation of non-English-language studies, adjacent fields, and underexplored sensory modalities.
  • Framework primarily reflects visual and auditory cues; future work should expand to multi-sensory designs.
  • Opportunities to integrate insights from personal informatics, lifelogging, and journaling systems.

Summary

This paper systematically reviews 60 studies on reminiscence technologies in HCI, identifying a strong focus on social connection and identity construction while highlighting gaps in instrumental and emotionally complex functions. It introduces a cue-centered framework that organizes design mechanisms into four stages: cue generation, augmentation, interaction, and sharing. The framework provides a shared vocabulary for analyzing diverse systems and suggests future directions for designing technologies that engage with the full spectrum of memory, including challenging emotions and everyday problem solving. This work aims to support researchers and designers in creating more holistic and impactful reminiscence technologies.