Flashbulb Memories

Research Paper # 91654

Psychology > Memory

Flashbulb Memories

A discussion of the mechanisms behind the formation and recall of flashbulb memories.

1,702 words () | 4 sources | APA | 2007 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper provides an overview of four experiments regarding the phenomenon of flashbulb memories. The paper explains flashbulb memories to be memories that are unusually vivid and never forgotten. The paper includes a discussion of the mechanisms behind their formation and recall, the effects of surprise and strong emotion and whether they should be regarded as different from other memories. The paper concludes that there does not seem to be enough evidence to raise flashbulb memories to a status above that of ordinary memories. They certainly have more emotion involved but, as studies have shown, they are still subject to recall errors.

From the Paper:

"Nied wie ska (2004) performed an experiment that tested the effects of knowledge of memory storage on participant's memories, particularly flashbulb memories. In the study 158 psychology students at Jagiellonian University were asked to complete several surveys concerning the September 11th terror attacks, including the place the participant learned of the attack, the way they learned of the attack, what they were doing when they learned of the attack, how they reacted to news of the attack, and how those around them reacted to news of the attack. The students completed the first survey within 3 weeks of the attack."

Sample of Sources Used:

Berntsen, D., Thomsen, D.K. (2005). Personal memories for remote historical events. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 134(2), 242-257.
Hornstein, S. L., Brown, A. S., Mulligan, N. W. (2003). Long-term flashbulb memory for learning of Princess Diana's death. Memory, 11, 293-306.
Niedzwienska, A. (2004). Metamemory knowledge and the accuracy of flashbulb memories. Memory, 12, 603-613.
Talarico, J. M., Rubin, D. C. (2003). Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories. Psychological Science, 14(5), 455-461.