| Abstrakt: |
Introduction: East Pakistan War of Independence in 1971 that lasted for almost nine months gave birth to a new country Bangladesh. The history of that war continues to shape the mindset of Bangladeshi people till the present day. Although five decades have passed since the victory, yet, there still remains a generation for whom the liberation war topic evokes unspeakable pain and triggers intense emotion. The memories of the liberation war have become an important part of autobiographical memory for those who fought the war and the generation that was born in and soon after the war. Emotion can have a powerful effect on organisms. Studies have shown that the most intense autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events, which are likely to be recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events. To the members of the post-liberation generation, the spirit of liberation signifies some nostalgic slogans of some of the members of older generation. Objectives: The objective of our present study is to investigate whether there is any age-difference in sensitivity to liberation war related words. Methods: Forty human participants were taken for the study. Sample was chosen in five age groups- 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 55 and 55 to 64. Participants in each group were equal in number and gender. Convenient sampling technique was used. Cross-sectional research design was used in this study. The stimulus in our study was a wordlist containing 40 Bangla words including 20 liberation war-related words, 10 normal emotional words and 10 neutral words. All participants were tested individually at the laboratory to ensure the standardized condition. The order of appearance of words from each category was randomized. Their reaction time was recorded with a stopwatch. Results: Results revealed that mean reaction time for liberation war-related words was highest for group-5 (mean = 6.39 sec, SD = 0.32) and lowest for group-1 (mean = 3.37 sec, SD = 0.48). In one-way analysis of variance, there is significant difference among the groups in reaction time to liberation war-related words (p < 0.00). In Bonferroni test, it is indicated that group-1 and group-5 significantly differ from other groups in reaction time to liberation war-related words. Conclusion: Findings of the study show that the oldest age group (Group-5) have the highest reaction time to both emotional and liberation war-related words. In the case of liberation war-related words, there is a significant difference between the older and the young. It is thus assumed that there is a difference between the sensitivity of the older and the young to liberation war-related words. As indicated by the findings, the older group has a slower reaction time than the younger group. So, it might be inferred that the older are more sensitive to liberation war-related words than the younger. The reason for slowing reaction time with age is not just simple mechanical factors like the speed of nervous conduction. Rather, it may be the tendency of older people to be more careful and monitor their responses more thoroughly. Older people also tend to allocate exclusive attention to any single stimulus and ignore another stimulus, more completely than younger people. Highest reaction time for the older age group indicates their sensitivity related to their emotional state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
