Flashbulb Memory: Brown and Kulik (1977)

Flashbulb Memory

Brown and Kulik (1977)

Emotion can affect one's memory of an occurrence. According to LeDoux, a psychologist who argued that there are biological pathways of emotion in the brain, the arousal of emotion will facilitate the memory of events that occur during that aroused state. However, one should always remember that memory can be enhanced and amplified by an intense emotion, but will not always be accurate.

The theory of flashbulb memory was suggested by Brown and Kulik in 1977. This theory suggests that some memories are remembered distinctly - even after time had passed - because the events incited highly emotional responses at the time. The emotional events are recorded in the brain as if by the flash of a camera.

Brown and Kulik found that people had clear memories of where they had been, what they had been doing, and what had happened in events in which they were emotionally involved. Examples include when JFK and MLK Jr. had been assassinated. These participants of the study were asked if they also had flashbulb memories of personal events. Out of the 80 participants, 73 said yes for events that were especially emotional, such as traumatic events or the deaths of family members. 

Explaining the actuality of the flashbulb theory: Brown and Kulik attempted to explain the biology of this effect by suggesting that there were special neural mechanisms that triggered emotional arousal for unexpected or extremely important events. This hypothesis is now supported by modern neuroscience: emotional events are better remembered than less emotional events. While reasons are still unknown to us, it could be because of the involvement of the amygdala (which is responsible for emotional responses and memory.

Neisser (1982): Argues against the flashbulb memory theory:

Neisser argued that flashbulb memory was not a cogent theory as people do not know that events are important until after the event is over. Thus, Neisser feels that the reason that some memories are especially vivid is due to their being rehearsed over and over again, once the event is known to be "important". Neisser argues that flashbulb memory is due to internal narrative: "where was I when [important event] happened?" "what was I doing when [important event] happened?" "who told me about [important event]?"...

Vivid Memories are Not Always Accurate:

In January of 1986, seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger died due to a tragic accident. This event was aired on television, so it was a shocking event for all its audience. Neisser and Harsch (1992) investigated people's memory accuracy of that event, 24 hours within the timeframe that the accident occurred, and once again 2 years later. They found that the participants were very confident in the accuracy of their memories, but 40% of them had distorted memories after the second year. Neisser and Harsch analyse that this is due to post-event information that has jumbled up their initial memory of the events. Inaccuracy of emotional memories are common, just as they are vivid. Talarico and Rubin found in 2003 that the confidence that one has of his memory is not correlated with the accuracy of that memory.

While post-event information can distort memories, it is recognised that present-views and emotions of past-events also affect one's memory. For example, men who are divorced will reflect back upon events that occurred while they were married in a more negative perception than they actually would had they remained in a successful marriage (Holmberg and Holmes 1994).

Emotion and Memory: Eye-witness testimonials of Titanic Accident

Click here for PDF with annotations.
Click here for YouTube video supplement for the PDF (read the PDF first).

Internal Assessment: Montemayor and Eissen (1977)

Hereafter, you will find my original work that I had created in preparation for my internal assessment. Please understand that copying material without giving credit to the source is known as plagiarism and a form of theft. In addition, I recommend you not use this post as the basis for your internal assessment as I am only a student myself, and calling me a reliable source may be debatable in the eyes of teachers and IBO. I am merely posting this as a guideline and example for internal assessments for HL Psychology, so please only use it as one. Thank you and I hope this helps you! - R. B. (Admin)

Topic: Developmental Psychology
Link of original document by Montemayor and Eissen here.
Hypothesis presented in the study: "it is hypothesized that young children primarily conceive of and describe themselves in terms of such concrete characteristics as their physical appearance and possessions, while adolescents conceive of themselves more abstractly and describe themselves in more psychological and interpersonal terms."
What design did Montemayor and Eissen use, and why: Montemayor and Eissen used a controlled laboratory experiment-method because it was the most appropriate design to use for the particular experiment. The nature of a laboratory experiment allows the researchers to control the environment as well as the subjects.
How was the sample selected and how might this influence the study: 136 males and 126 females were selected from four different grade-level schools from suburban, midwestern and university communities. The subjects were either in grades 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12. The subjects were all exclusively white and had average or above average intelligence levels. Almost all of the subject's parents were in classes I and II (Hoolingshead's two factor index of social positions). The focus group may influence the study as the results will not be relevant to the self-perceptions of people of other ethnicities and cultures.
What controls were established? There were no controls other than the students being divided according to their age groups. They were all administered the same test, first created by Burgental & Zelen in 1950, called the Twenty Statements Test. There were 20 spaces were they were directed to defined themselves.
What is the independent and dependent variable? The independent variable is the age group of the subject, and the dependent variable is their quality of self-perception.
Describe the procedures employed by the researcher: Montemayor and Eissen instructed their subjects to complete the Twenty Questions test (question: "Who Am I?") and then had two trained undergraduates to score the answers provided by the subjects according to Gordon's (1968) 30-category scoring system. The 30 categories were those that aimed to classify each and any answer that was written down by the subjects. (E.g: sex, age, name, racial or national heritage, religion, kinship role, occupational role, student role, political affiliation, social status, territoriality or citizenship, membership in actual interacting group, existential or individuating, etc...)
What type of data was gathered? How was it or how could have it been analyzed? Data was gathered within aforementioned 30 categories. The data was processed by the researchers in a way that it was laid out in a table as the percentage of subjects at each age using the category at least once (i.e. quantitative data). Chi-squared tests were also performed due to the large data sets. The researchers explained their data in the form of linear and curvilinear lines.
What are the research findings? Conclusions were made that support the GENERAL hypothesis. The researchers were able to conclude that:
a) The concrete-to-abstract change is not a simple linear one. However, this is most likely because some of the categories can be considered to be either concrete or abstract. The changes between concrete-to-abstract self-perceptions from childhood to adolescence primarily involve the use of concrete description by adolescents rather than the use of abstract self-perceptions by the children.
b) Children in the study primarily described themselves in terms of concrete, objective categories such as their address and physical appearance, while adolescents used more abstract and subjective descriptions such as personal beliefs and interpersonal characteristics.
What types of problems could there have been with the research? Because it was not required that each subject write down all 20 answers, where could have been an uneven amount of data distributed among the age-groups.
What changes could be suggested for future research? Make it compulsory for them to fill out all 20 answers as long as the subjects are willing to participate in the experiment.