The present study examined the association between acculturation orientations and the phenomenological and episodic characteristics of autobiographical memories of Syrian adult migrants in Türkiye. Moreover, the role of language in this association was investigated. Each participant received three instructions: recalling a pre-migration memory, a post-migration memory, and projecting an autobiographical future event. Participants then rated the general phenomenological and episodic characteristics of each memory, as well as the episodic characteristics of autobiographical future projection. Results revealed that host cultural orientation was positively associated with all characteristics of post-migration memories, as well as with the episodic characteristic of autobiographical future projection. The interaction pattern of acculturation orientations showed that the separation strategy was positively associated with post-migration autobiographical memory variables. No statistically significant associations were found between language and autobiographical memory variables. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to examine migrants' autobiographical memory characteristics across different life periods by measuring acculturation. Overall, the findings suggest that the adaptiveness of different acculturation strategies for autobiographical memory recall may be highly dependent on the sociocultural context of the host country. The findings indicate new conceptualizations in migrants' autobiographical memory research and address gaps in the existing literature.
Ersoy et al. (Tue,) studied this question.