flashbulb memories

flashbulb memories

1. vivid and detailed memories of personal events - known as reception events - surprising and have high emotional significance

2. more likely to occur when event is unexpected (Kennedy assassination) when personally relevant (Thatcher resignation) and strong emotional importance for individual (Martin Luther King)

3. Brown & Kulick carried out research on 10 events likely to lead to flashbulb memories (Kennedy and King assassinations)

   • found that people remembered six kinds of information when they learned of events
     • where - who they were with - what doing - who told them - how they felt - what happened afterwards

4. claimed that flashbulb memories are more detailed, vivid and lasting than other autobiographical memories

   • e.g. Linton's diary studies of more everyday autobiographical memory found that much information was lost and emotional content did not relate to the likelihood of an event being remembered

5. while autobiographical memory is often inaccurate - flashbulb memories are important indicating that memory can be extremely accurate

   • some debate however over their accuracy and whether they involve a special mechanism