Why do you remember exactly where you were on a shocking day?
Shocking news burns itself into memory with total confidence, yet the details may be no more accurate than a memory of last Tuesday.
▶ Start the storyBecause surprise, personal importance and emotion make the brain treat a moment as a priority, and because we then retell it again and again; but "exactly" is mostly a feeling, since such memories are special in how accurate they seem, not in how accurate they are. A flashbulb memory is a vivid, long-lasting memory about a surprising or shocking event. Roger Brown and James Kulik coined the term in 1977. The principal determinants are arguably a high level of surprise, a high level of , and perhaps .
The emotional part has a clear route through the brain. The most vivid tend to be of emotional events, which are recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events. When an emotional experience occurs, the becomes highly active and signals the to strengthen the encoding and of the memory.
Step 1: Surprise and importance
A high level of surprise and
Step 2: fires
It signals the
Step 3: Stronger encoding
The strengthens encoding and
Step 4: Retelling
Retold errors can become part of the memory
But vivid does not mean accurate. The day after the 11 September 2001 attacks, 54 Duke students were tested on their memory of hearing the news and of a recent everyday event, then retested after 7, 42 or 224 days. The number of consistent details recalled did not differ between the two kinds of memory, and fell over time in both. What differed was the feeling: ratings of vividness, recollection and belief in accuracy declined only for everyday memories. In the words of the researchers, flashbulb memories are not special in their accuracy but only in their perceived accuracy.
So where does the confidence come from? Partly from what happens afterwards. The most important thing in creating a flashbulb memory is not the moment of hearing the news but what occurs after it, and errors that are rehearsed through retelling and reliving can become part of the memory.
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Recap
Flashbulb memories are special in how vivid and certain they feel, not in how accurate they are.
💡 A trick to remember it · A flashbulb memory is a framed photo whose frame never fades while the picture inside slowly changes.
Surprising fact · Memories of a shocking day lost accuracy as fast as memories of an ordinary day, but only the ordinary ones lost their feeling of certainty.
Sources (2)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (16 claims) cites at least one of these.