COGNITIVE emotion on memory (flashbulb memory) - brown and kulik

researchers name(s)

brown

kulik

year

1977

aim of study

to investigate the phenomenon of flashbulb memories—vivid, detailed, and enduring memories of significant, surprising, and emotionally charged events

topic

influence of emotion on memory

participants

80 participants

procedure

• gathered data on flashbulb memory theories from 80 participants

• gave them a series of 9 events (e.g. the assassination of JFK) and asked them if; ‘you recall the circumstances in which you first heard (about the event)’

• for those events receiving an affirmative answer, participants were asked to recall their memory and: rate it on a scale of consequentiality, and indicate their estimate of times they had rehearsed the event

findings

• 99% of participants recalled the circumstances in which they heard about the assassination of JFK

• next most powerful

  memory was the assassination of his brother, Robert F Kennedy (56%)

• it is shown that while the Kennedy assassination created an extraordinarily powerful and widely shared flashbulb memory, it is not the only event that has created such memories

• the principal two determinants appear to be a high level of surprise, a high

  level of consequentiality, or perhaps emotional arousal (assessed by both rating scales and ethnic group membership)

• if these two variables do not attain sufficiently high levels, no flashbulb memory occurs

additional information?

• natural experiment

• if they do attain high levels, they seem, most directly, to affect the frequency of rehearsal, covert and overt, which, in turn, affects the degree of elaboration in the narrative of the memory that can be elicited experimentally

• the fact that participants could recall the nature of an event that took place 13-14 years previous provides support for FBM as a separate type of memory