Flashbulb Memories: Remembering Specific Events - Essay Example

Running Head: Flashbulb Memories Flashbulb Memories: Remembering Specific Events By You Your Academic Organization Here Here Flashbulb Memories:Remembering Specific Events Introduction Most individuals in today’s society maintain memories of a particular event, a situation that was either thrilling or somehow negative or traumatic, in which these people can vividly remember where they were and what they were doing during that particular moment. This phenomenon is referred to as flashbulb memory, in which a very clear memory exists of a certain event as well as the particular associated incidents surrounding it even after a great deal of time has elapsed (Morris & Maisto, 2005). Many older individuals can likely give vivid details of what they were doing, as one relevant example, on the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Should this individual remember that they were flying a kite on the beach that day, this is an example of flashbulb memory. Flashbulb memory is generally a unique phenomenon for each person experiencing it, with some individuals reporting more negative emotions with an event while others reflect positively on a particular moment in time. As such, there does not appear to be a unanimous belief in the psychological community that flashbulb memories will hold the same value or importance for each individual person. However, the fact that the human mind maintains the ability to instantly recall events from history with unbelievable accuracy tends to illustrate the complexity of human cognitive capabilities. Understanding Flashbulb Memory Ask any group of individuals to describe the exact details of a specific day in the calendar year, perhaps a day when the group was in elementary school. Likely, they will not be able to provide details of the event with any kind of clarity. However, utilizing the aforementioned John Kennedy reference, cooking guru Julia Child can easily recall that she and her husband were eating soup at the time of the assassination (Greenberg, 2005). Another disaster occurred in England in which nearly 100 soccer fans were crushed to death during a stadium catastrophe. One month after the incident, all surveyed respondents were able to clearly remember the events of their lives at the moment they heard the news of the stadium disaster (Luminet, Curci, Marsh, Wessel, et al, 2004). All of the aforementioned situations would tend to illustrate that flashbulb memories are created by some form of rememberable stimuli, which engrains the daily events of an individual and links them directly with the traumatic or inspirational event. Though there is no clear evidence as to why this phenomenon occurs, however it has been suggested by several researchers that individuals are capable of recalling flashbulb memories when situations occurred which were more positive (Bohn & Berntsen, 2007). This is supported by Zavitz (2003) who suggests that flashbulb memories are formed for highly surprising and largely consequential events, meaning that situations require an associated emotional response in order to trigger the formation of these memories. All of the aforementioned would tend to suggest that the impact of the event on the individual is directly correlated with the ability and desire to store long-term memories which record the situation for recall. Perina (2002) offers that flashbulb memories fade over a relatively short passage of time. However, this does not appear to be the consensus in the field of psychological research, as individuals have been known to recall situations which occurred decades prior to the date of recall (Blackstone & Artemis, 2001). Perhaps this would tend to suggest that flashbulb memories do eventually erode, but they are maintained based on the severity of importance of the situation which occurred. For instance, a World War II veteran may look fondly on wartime activities, such as remembering an embrace with a girlfriend upon news of the war’s end. Another individual may look backward with apprehension at talk of the world war, as they may have been involved in direct enemy combat at the moment of the war’s cease fire. The first individual would maintain positive memories of wartime discussion while the other would be largely uneased by talk of World War II. However, in this situation, both individuals maintain very long-term flashbulb memories, which may suggest that such memories do not necessarily fade over time. Woll (2002) offers that flashbulb memories will maintain differential levels of importance for each person experiencing recall of previous consequential events, suggesting that there is no definitive or predictive method to understand the formation of flashbulb memories. However, it would appear that correlating personal beliefs or experiences with an event is a rather universal human attribute in terms of cognition, making flashbulb memories an interesting topic of study to determine the rationale for why these memories are formed. Morris & Maisto again suggest that flashbulb memories are largely formed because of their highly emotional content, however the length of time that such memories are stored does not appear to have a definitive resolution in the research community. Conclusion It can be competently determined that flashbulb memories occur in the face of traumatic or otherwise stimulating situations, but their degree of accuracy and levels of importance are largely determined at the level of the specific person experiencing them. However, despite understanding that these memories are formed under such unique human conditions, the largest consensus about flashbulb memories is that they create powerful connections with historical events and the emotional responses of the individual. Positive events and negative situations appear to be the catalyst for flashbulb memories, however the level to which an individual reflects positively on the memories will likely be determined by the severity of the event. One person may consider an event (such as a stadium disaster) to be less emotionally moving than their counterpart, thus their memories lack the vivid detail of individual who experienced negative trauma over the event. Whatever the case, it is clear that flashbulb memory, as a human capability for events recall and long-term memory storage, is yet another example of the complexity of the human condition and another interesting topic of study in the field of psychology. References Bohn, A. & Berntsen, D. (2007). “Pleasantness bias in flashbulb memories: Positive and negative flashbulb memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall among East and West Germans”. Memory & Cognition. 35(3): 565-571. Greenberg, Daniel. (2005). “Flashbulb Memories”. Skeptic. Altadena. 11(3): 74-81. Luminet, O., Curci, A., Marsh, E.J., Wessel, I. et al. (2004). “The Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Impacts of the September 11 Attacks: Group Differences in Memory for the Reception Context and the Determinants of Flashbulb Memory”. The Journal of General Psychology. 131(3): 197. Morris, C. & Maisto, A. (2005). Psychology: An Introduction. 12th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, NJ: 251-252. Perina, Kaja. (2002). “Hot on the trail of flashbulb memory”. Psychology Today. New York. 35(2): 15-17. Woll, Stanley. (2002). Everyday Thinking: Memory, Reasoning, and Judgment in the Real World. N.J. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Zavitz, Laura. (2003). “Reconstructive processes in memory: Flashbulb Memories”. Retrieved 16 Feb 2008 from http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~pjolicoe/398/handouts/pdf/flashbulb2.pdf Read More