Sunday, December 4, 2011

Flashbulb Memory - Neisser & Harsch (1992)

Procedure: Participants were asked about the Challenger space ship one day after the disaster and 2.5 years later. They asked questions such as: where they were, what they were doing, who told them, what time it occurred etc.  
Findings: The findings showed that memories had in fact dimmed. 40% of the participants had distorted memories in the final reports they made. Interestingly participants were not aware of this fall off in performance, being highly confident in their ability to recall accurately.
Conclusion: This represents how memories have deteriorated significantly during the two and half years, suggesting that Flashbulb Memories (FBMs) are not reliable and that FBMs may be ordinary memories. The results suggest that what is different is the confidence that people have in their memories associated with significant events.

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