A flashbulb memory is an accurate and exceptionally vivid long-lasting memory for the circumstances surrounding learning about a dramatic event. Flashbulb Memories are memories that are affected by our emotional state.
The amygdala seems to play a key role in the formation and retrieval of flashbulb memories. Relatively little evidence for flashbulb memories as a distinct memory process. They ‘feel’ accurate (we are confident in recall) but are just as prone to forgetting & change as other episodic memories.
Additionally, while ordinary autobiographical memories involve a dimensional structure containing every level of autobiographical information, flashbulb memories stem apparently from a more densely integrated area of autobiographical information (Lanciano & Curci, 2012).
Herein, the formation of the flashbulb memory is significantly influenced by the individual’s emotional relationship to the particular event (Curci & Luminet, 2009). A common approach seems to characterize studies of flashbulb memory.
autobiographical memoryFlashbulb memories are one type of autobiographical memory. Some researchers believe that there is reason to distinguish flashbulb memories from other types of autobiographical memory because they rely on elements of personal importance, consequentiality, emotion, and surprise.
Which of the following best describes a flashbulb memory? A memory formed during a emotional event that seems to be very vivid, but is no more accurate than a normal memory.
Flashbulb memory is a special kind of emotional memory, which refers to vivid and detailed memories of highly emotional events that appear to be recorded in the brain as a picture taken by camera. You just studied 6 terms!
While episodic memory involves a person's autobiographical experiences and associated events, semantic memory involves facts, ideas, and concepts acquired over time. Specific events, general events, personal facts, and flashbulb memories constitute different types of episodic memory.
One of the reasons that flashbulb memories are so strong is because of the emotional arousal caused by hearing the news, which makes the memory become etched into the mind much stronger than other memories might be.
The amygdala is a region of the brain primarily associated with emotional processes. The Midtown participants did not show this activation. That might suggest that flashbulb memories are more vivid, because of the additional emotional processing from the amygdala.
The recollection of geographical location, activities, and feelings during a monumental or emotional life experience all fall under the category of flashbulb memories. Some common examples of such remembrances include the memory of 9/11 attacks, a school shooting, college graduation, or even the birth of one's child.
They postulated flashbulb memory occurring via the special mechanism hypothesis, which argues for the existence of a special biological memory mechanism that, when triggered by an event exceeding critical levels of surprise, creates a permanent record of the details and circumstances surrounding the experience.
Surprise refers to not anticipating the event and consequentiality refers to the level of importance of the event. Notably, however, they held that while flashbulb memories are fixed, they are not always necessarily accessible from long-term memory (Cohen, McCloskey & Wible, 1990).
In general, the factors which impact flashbulb memories are considered to be independent of cultural variation. Proximity to an event and personal involvement are generally regarded as the chief determining factors in memory formation.
Moreover, the fundamental characteristics of a flashbulb memory are informant (who broke the news), own affect (how they felt), aftermath (importance of the event), other affect (how others felt), ongoing activity (what they were doing) and place (where they where when the event happened).
Flashbulb Memories are memories that are affected by our emotional state. The analogy of a flashbulb describes the way we can often remember where you where, what you were doing, how you were informed, and how you reacted, as if the whole scene had been 'illuminated' by a flashbulb.
However, there are other research findings which suggest that flashbulb memories are more accurate than everyday memories because consequentiality, personal involvement, distinction and proximity can enhance recall (Sharot, Delgado & Phelps, 2004).
Roger Brown and James Kulik introduced the term ‘flashbulb memory’ in 1977 in their study of individuals’ ability to recall consequential and surprising events. Debate centers on whether they are a special case (resistant to forgetting over time ), or the same as other memories.
The amygdala, thus, seems to play a role in encoding and retrieving the memories of significant public events. The amygdala’s function in memory is related to the increase of arousal caused by an experience (McGaugh, 2004). This suggests that what influences arousal possibly impacts the nature of memories.