Int. J. Computers in Healthcare, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2010 177 Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Stimulating people with dementia to reminisce using personal and generic photographs Arlene J. Astell* and Maggie P. Ellis School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, KY16 9JP, UK E-mail: aja3@st-and.ac.uk E-mail: mpe2@st-and.ac.uk *Corresponding author Norman Alm and Richard Dye Division of Applied Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, DD1 4HN, UK E-mail: nalm@computing.dundee.ac.uk E-mail: richarddye@gmail.com Gary Gowans Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, DD1 4HT, UK E-mail: g.m.gowans@dundee.ac.uk Abstract: Reminiscing is a positive pastime for people with dementia but little is known about selecting materials to prompt reminiscing, particularly whether personal items are more useful than generic ones. This paper reports two small studies, the first using personal stimuli (family photographs) and the second generic photographs of annual events to examine their relative effectiveness as reminiscence prompts for people with dementia. Story telling and the types of information people with dementia produced in response to the photographs are examined. In response to family photographs, people with dementia told very few stories and produced quite limited information. When shown generic photographs, people with dementia produced quite detailed and emotional stories of personal significance. The findings suggest that personal items perform as a memory test for labels and descriptions of family events whereas generic items spark off different recollections in different people, thereby encouraging the sharing of stories and social reminiscing. Keywords: dementia; reminiscing; photographs. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Astell, A.J., Ellis, M.P., Alm, N., Dye, R. and Gowans, G. (2010) ‘Stimulating people with dementia to reminisce using personal and generic photographs’, Int. J. Computers in Healthcare, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp.177–198.