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Flashbulb Memory Flashbulb memories are distinctly vivid, precise, concrete, long-lasting memories of a personal circumstance surrounding a person’s discovery of shocking events. People remember with almost perceptual clarity details of the context in which they first heard about the news, such as what they were doing, with whom they were with and where they were. These flashbulb memories are not as accurate or permanent as photographic memories but the flashbulb memories’ forgetting curve is far less affected by time than is the case for other types of memories studied in basic memory research. The flashbulb memories are
stored on one occasion and retained for a lifetime. These memories are associated with important historical or
autobiographical events. Such events
could include, for example, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin
Luther King Jr. or the attack on Pearl Harbor. What makes the flashbulb
memory special is the emotional arousal at the moment that the event was registered
to the memory. It is the emotions
elicited by a flashbulb memory event that increase the ability to recall the
details of the event. One reason that the
flashbulb memories are remembered is because these memories tend to be retold
over and over again. Sometimes,
though, these memories are not necessarily accurate. Accuracy reduces during the first 3 months
and levels at about 12 months. |