what is Flashbulb Memory in psychology???

Question

i am studying AS-Level Psychology and 6th form and have to do an essay on Flashbulb Memory. help please

Answer 1

If you do a Google or Yahoo! search on "Flashbulb Memory" lots of web sites pop up.

Answer 2

Flashbulb Memory Definition

Answer 3

A flashbulb memory is a memory that was laid down in great detail during a personally significant event, often a shocking event of national or international importance. These memories are perceived to have a "photographic" quality. The term was coined by Brown and Kulik (1977), who found highly emotional memories (e.g. hearing bad news) were often vividly recalled, even some time after the event. For example, a great many people can remember where they were when they heard of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 or the assassination of U.S president John F. Kennedy, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., or musician John Lennon. Despite the great vividness of such memories, some research suggests that flashbulb memories are no more likely to be remembered than ordinary memories, if the ordinary memories are consistently returned to in a similar way (e.g., Weaver, 1993 and Talarico, 2003). The most pronounced difference between ordinary and flashbulb memory is that people believe flashbulb memories to be more accurately and vividly remembered. Part of the reason for this may be that people discuss such significant events frequently, and the after-the-fact discussion can modify what people believe they remember about the event. Neisser (1982) believes that flashbulb memories are enduring because they are constantly being reinforced by, for example, the media. Some biologists believe that the hormone cortisol, which is released in response to stressful incidents, cooperate with epinephrine (adrenaline) to cause the formation of flashbulb memories by the brain, functioning to help remembering things to avoid in the future. Another theory proposes flashbulb memory is an artifact of synaptic plasticity tagging whereby memory of unimportant events share or 'steal' some of the strengthening synaptic tag of the important event.

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Answer 4

A flashbulb memory is a vivid memory of an emotional event (The term Flashbulb is used because people describing these types of memories say that it is like having a photo in their head of what happened to them). Flashbulb memories can be happy/sad and can be of major events, such as 911 or personal events in your life, such as your wedding day. Flashbulb memories are also special because unlike other memories, you don't need a cue (trigger) to remember them. However, some researchers (e.g. McClusky) found that they aren't as accurate as we think they are and therefore question whether they are different to any other memory at all!

I assume that your Homework essay is on the role of emotion in forgetting. If so, you could go one of 3 ways with this:

1. Focus on the argument that emotion produces better memories (i.e. Flashbulb memories).

2. Focus on the argument that emotion leads to poorer memories (repression-i.e. we 'push' painful memories into our unconscious because they are too painful for us to remember).

3. Focus on both arguments! If you're a keen student and good at writing fast and only selecting the important bits of what you've learned, I would say take this approach. If not, do either 1/2 because that would be perfectly ok for you to do in your exams.

NB. Both 1 & 2 have strengths and weaknesses (e.g. accuracy of flashbulb memories and the type of evidence used to support repression). Don't forget to say this in your essay and draw together your final argument based on the theories and research discussed in your essay (just the findings, conclusions, criticisms and strengths) in your conclusion!

Hope all this helps!

For further reading, you may wish to use the following:

Psychology for AS level- Cardwell, Clark & Meldrum

Psychology for AS level- Eysenck

AS Psychology- The complete companion*

*This is the book that I use to teach this topic to my students through presentations. This is also an excellent revision book which includes information on how to structure material for this question.

Useful websites include:

www.psyonline.org.uk

An excellent free resource website for Psychology students and teachers. The resources are divided into the 6 units of AQA A A-Level psychology (you need unit 1: remembering and forgetting).

www.freewebs.com/psychedout

My Free non-profit, non-commercial teaching resource website. I have also divided my resources into the 6 unit topics, so they should be easy to find. However, they are in compressed files, so you will need to use a program like Winzip to download them onto your computer. If you do visit my website, all I ask is that you let me know what you think about it in the guestbook and tell your friends and teacher about it, if you found it useful!

Answer 5

Flashbulb memory is when a dramatic event is forever etched in your mind, such as the 9/11 tragedy.

Answer 6

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Good Bye

Answer 7

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Answer 8

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