Memory And Flashbulb Memory

Flashbulb memory is when a person learns or experiences a very surprising and emotional arousing events (Matlin, 155). As it is a long lasting memory that people report vivid details about a traumatic event, it has been the subjects of recent scientific studies. Recent findings have mentioned a relationship between flashbulb memory and the September 11, 2001 attack. An article published in the American Psychological Association entitled “Seared in Our Memories” written by Bridget Murray Law analyzes different studies on the topic to explore how accurate people vividly remember about the 9/11 attack, and on how much is accurate or fabricated through various encounters. After reading the article, Law mentions interesting researchers concluding

Law (2011) cited James McGaugh, a memory expert who found out the closer you are to the World Trade Center, the more likely you remember the memory based on your emotions. Talarico and Rubin (2003) examined the consistency of a person’s flashbulb memory on 9/11 and everyday memories determining if there is a difference form the first week to the 32nd week. It is likely for someone to have a vivid memory of something that released strong emotions than your everyday memories. A person cannot remember what they did the day before or after September 11, but they remember certain aspects of the traumatic event. Flashbulb memory is accurate when there is something that brings out negative emotions, and something that can have an effect on people’s lives (Talarico and Rubin, 2003). During the 9/11 attack thousands of people were killed whether it was family, friends or stranger it released a lot of emotions for the people living in New York. In Talarico and Rubin (2003) study, they recruited Duke students the day after the September 11, 2001 attack, and were asked to answered open-ended question about the emotional event. Consistency is measured on how much memory is accurate from the beginning to the end of the study. Emotion intensity was measured from not at all to extremely. Law (2011) mentions that the more you tell the story, chance it is engraved in your memories as the truth, which is rehearsed and reconstructed

That being said people remember certain aspects that happened, but they miss certain details. Tali Sharot and her colleagues (2007) reported that the amygdala is significant in encoding and retrieving memory that triggers emotions during a traumatic event. It is reported that New Yorker who was near the World Trade Center were likely to have a vivid and accurate memory than someone in a different location. People have better recall mechanism when there is something that triggers their emotions in a big way compared to something that you did last summer. The study used word cues such as “summer” and “September” to stimulate one’s memory, so it was recalled accurately (Sharot et al., 2007). If someone was near the World Trade Center during the attack, so there is a high possibility that that the person would have an accurate memory when someone says the word September because they were emotional involved. Honestly, not that many people remember what they did that summer compared to the September 11