Flashbulb Memory Theory

The theory of flashbulb memory was suggested in 1977 by Brown and Kulik, and is described as a “special type of emotional memory which refers to vivid and detailed memories of highly emotional events, that appear to be recorded in the brain as though with the help of a camera’s flash” (Crane and Hannibal). Brown and Kulik suggested that there may be “a special neural mechanism that triggers an emotional arousal because the event is unexpected or extremely important”. There have been many studies carried out to explain and investigate this phenomenon of flashbulb memory- some showing support, but some also going against.
Brown and Kulik (1977) found that more significant events can cause an imprinting of a memory of the event in question. They asked the participants about 5 major events, for example, the assassination of John F Kennedy. The result was that people said they had very clear memories of their location and when they first learned about the important event being asked about. 73 out of 80 (over 90% of) participants …show more content…
This is because the amygdala is the region of the brain most strongly involved in emotional memory. The amygdala calculates how emotionally important an event is. It is also thought to be responsible for the effect of emotion on perception ,alerting us to notice emotionally significant events even when we are not paying attention to our surroundings and the events around us. This provides further support for the existence of flashbulb memory and how emotional arousal may impact our memory. However we cannot assume that there is no other effect on flashbulb memory other than the amygdala, therefore a possible criticism of the biological approach could be that it is reductionist, as no other factors are being taken into