Mechanism Of Flashbulb Memories

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The mechanism of forming FBMs is no different to the production of everyday autobiographic recollections. A study undertaken by Otani et al. (2005), investigated the creation of FBMs and how they are processed by memory. The aim of the study was to discover if people that lived nearby the nuclear accident site of Japan in 1999 developed FBMs. Participants were asked a questionnaire, once approximately three weeks after the accident and again one year after and were requested to recall the disaster. The results found overall only 3% of participants formed FBMs. Although this accident was surprising, personally significant and a public event, the authors prediction that it would result in a highly emotional response and thus trigger FBMs was …show more content…
The authors argued FBMs are vivid and long lasting memories for the reception of a shocking public event and are consistent and resistant to decay over time, similar to taking photograph. Moreover, they stated these recollections were processed differently to normal autographical memories. Since Brown & Kulik’s original work, countless studies have successfully disputed their findings on how FBMs are formed, processed cognitively, retained and recalled. The conclusions from these studies clearly illustrate FBMs are affected by emotion and this influences how these memories are stored and recalled. Nonetheless, these recollections are additionally prone to decay over time, are susceptible to being distorted which strongly and clearly disputes Brown & Kulik’s findings on the features of FBMs. In respect to these results, it has still been difficult to develop a model that measures how FBMs should be tested and given most findings are based on people’s reactions and memories to events and that are derived from being self-reported they are high in ecological validity. Albeit, it is apparent FBMs are no different to ordinary vivid autographical memories as they decay over time and become distorted which highlights discrepancies in Brown & Kulik’s theory. Crucial progression on temporal lobe epilepsy and FBMs has emerged in research. With the progress of current findings on FBMs, future studies are vital to develop an assessment model of FBMs in an attempt to fully consider how they are formed, stored and processed cognitively, to advance our understanding of cognitive processes on memory and potentially prevent and treat disorders of

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