The Lightbulb in Your Mind
By Ally Kelley
Where were you on September 11th, 2001? Who were you with? What were you doing and how were you feeling? These are questions that many Americans can easily answer due to the events that occurred on this date in time. These vivid memories of specific experiences are called flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories, as defined by Dr. Julia Shaw (2016) in “The Memory Illusion,” are described as detailed and vivid, with these memories typically involving the recall of the situation in which a piece of historically important news was heard. Along with the detailed recollection of the event itself, flashbulb memories imply that we have the capacity for immediate and powerful recollections of moments that were particularly significant.
We’ve all had them. Memories that seem so real and clear in our minds; but are these memories as accurate as what actually happened in front of us? Are there other factors that may have influenced us to have changes in our recollection? How confident are you that these certain events that create these memories have the correct specific details? Before we talk about the factors associated with our remembering, we need to discuss what makes these “flashbulb memories,” so prominent.
One of the first characteristics to remembering these events as flashbulb memories is that it needs to generate a high level of surprise. With the shock of historical events like 9/11, it definitely had quite the impact on many different people around the world. The second characteristic is that the event needed to carry important consequences, or have a high consequentiality. 9/11 was deemed highly important to many individuals, and more to society; making it have a higher consequentiality. The last characteristic is that the individual remembering the event needs to have experienced a strong emotion; fear, anger, sadness, or any strong emotion directly associated with the event in question. Can you think of your strongest and most vivid memory? Do you have any strong emotions tied to this event? This last characteristic is one of the most important as these emotions are more likely to have a stronger resistance to forgetting.
As explained by Dr. Markman, a cognitive scientist, there can also be other factors that can influence these memories. People are highly confident about their memories, and they feel as though all of the details have been preserved. But, research on memory suggests that confidence can be misleading. Outside factors like media coverage of events can also have an influence on one’s memory. One study (Conway et al., 2009) examined the possible effect that media coverage can have on memory for events like 9/11. Half of the sample was tested before the anniversary of 9/11 in 2002, and the other half was tested after the anniversary. They found that the intense media coverage on the anniversary distorted people’s memory for the initial event.
Even though I was only 3 years old on September 11th, 2001, I seem to have my own flashbulb memory. I remember watching my mom being sad. All of a sudden, she screamed at me to get down behind the couch while she ran to a different room to my dad. I remember looking out the window and seeing an airplane flying over, and that was the reason why she was so on edge. She was scared that plane was going to crash somewhere near where we lived.
So now I ask you, no matter the age you were or the event, do you have a flashbulb memory from an important and/or emotional event in your life? Is that what really happened?
References
Conway, A., Skitka, L., Hemmerich, J., & Kershaw, T. (2009). Flashbulb Memory for 11 September 2001. Applied Cognitive Psychology: The Official Journal of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 23(5), 605-623.
Markman, A. (2015). The Consistency of Flashbulb Memories. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ulterior-motives/201506/the-consistency-flashbulb-memories
Shaw, J. (2016). The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory, Random House Books, London.
https://sites.tufts.edu/emotionandmemoryblog/2018/11/10/flashbulb-memories/