Flashbulb memory
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A flashbulb memory is a memory created in great detail during a personally significant event, often a shocking event of national or international importance. These memories are perceived to have a "photographic" quality. The term was coined by Brown and Kulik[1], who found highly emotional memories (e.g. hearing bad news) were often vividly recalled, even some time after the event. For example, a great many people can remember where they were when they heard of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 or the assassination of U.S president John F. Kennedy, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., or musician John Lennon.
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[edit] Criticism
Despite the great vividness of such memories, some research suggests that flashbulb memories are no more likely to be remembered than ordinary memories, if the ordinary memories are consistently returned to in a similar way.[2][3] The most pronounced difference between ordinary and flashbulb memory is that people believe flashbulb memories to be more accurately and vividly remembered. Part of the reason for this may be that people discuss such significant events frequently, and the after-the-fact discussion can modify what people believe they remember about the event. Neisser believes that flashbulb memories are enduring because they are constantly being reinforced by, for example, the media.[4]
[edit] Surprise-induced memorization
Empirical research shows that flashbulb memories may be formed in response to surprising stimuli and events in general, and not only to social events. These would include visually incongruous stimuli, for example. Michelon and colleagues performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which participants viewed pictures depicting ordinary and incongruous objects (e.g., head of a wrench fused onto a sheep body). The study found evidence of different, and stronger, memory encoding for incongruous visual information. Moreover, a subset of regions near the right frontal operculum and extending laterally was found to respond only to, or more strongly to, infrequent incongruous pictures. These findings can be seen as supporting the original flashbulb memorization hypothesis proposed by Brown and Kulik.[5]
A study conducted by Kock and colleagues also provides support to the notion that flashbulb memories are encoded differently, leading to enhanced recall, as originally hypothesized by Brown and Kulik. In the study, a web-based snake screen was used to surprise participants (treatment condition) while they were studying learning modules online (each module was a web page with text). The study found that the participants who were surprised performed on average 28% better in a test on the learning modules than those in the control condition (no snake screen). This effect was significant only for the learning modules immediately before and after the snake screen. The participants did not have enough time to rehearse the memories associated with the surprise event, because the test was administered immediately after the participants' study of the modules.[6]
[edit] Hormonal basis hypothesis
Some biologists believe that the hormone cortisol, which is released in response to stressful incidents, cooperates with epinephrine (adrenaline) to cause the formation of flashbulb memories by the brain, functioning to help remembering things to avoid in the future. Another theory proposes flashbulb memory is an artifact of synaptic plasticity tagging whereby memory of unimportant events share or 'steal' some of the strengthening synaptic tag of the important event.
[edit] References
- ^ Brown, R., & Kulik, J. (1977). "Flashbulb memories". Cognition 5: 73–99. doi:.
- ^ Weaver, C.A., III. (1993). Do you need a “flash” to form a flashbulb memory? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 39–46.
- ^ Talarico J.M., & Rubin D.C. (Sept. 2003). "Confidence, not consistency, characterizes flashbulb memories". Psychological Science (Blackwell Science, Inc.) 14 (5): 455–461(7). doi:. http://911memory.nyu.edu/abstracts/talarico_rubin.pdf.
- ^ Neisser, U. (1982). "Snapshots or benchmarks?". In U. Neisser & I.E. Hyman (Eds.), Memory observed: Remembering in natural contexts: 68–74. San Francisco: Worth Publishers.
- ^ Michelon, P., Snyder, A.Z., Buckner, R.L., McAvoy, M., & Zacks, J.M. (2003). “Neural correlates of incongruous visual information: An event-related fMRI study”. NeuroImage, 19(4): 1612-1627.
- ^ Kock, N., Chatelain-Jardón, R., & Carmona, J. (2008). “An experimental study of simulated Web-based threats and their impact on knowledge communication effectiveness”. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 51(2): 183-197.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Morris, R. (2006). Elements of a neurobiological theory of hippocampal function. European Journal of Neuroscience, 23(11), 2829-2846.
- van Giezen, A.E., Arensman, E., Spinhoven, P., Wolters, G. (2005). Consistency of memory for emotionally arousing events: A review of prospective and experimental studies. Clinical Psychology Review, 25(7), 935-953.
[edit] External links
- American Psychological Society: Reactions from Psychological Scientists (on 9/11 and flashbulb memory research)
- 9/11 National Memory Survey on the Terrorist Attacks
