Flashbulb Memory

Hannah Wisinsky

Psychology 201 – Section 106

 George Adkins

Flashbulb Memory

A flashbulb memory  occers  when major events happen in a persons life it activates a special memory mechanism  that creates a elaborate, permanent “flashbulb memory” of a person’s experience just before, during and after learning of the shocking event. The term was given by Brown and Kulik in 1977 who determined highly emotional memories (example: hearing bad news or life changing events) were often graphically  retrieved, even over a long period after the event.  These memories are perceived to have “photographic”  prime. They have a detail-perfect apparel of contextual information (weather, back-ground music, clothes worn, etc.) pertaining to the time and place where the event was first known. This may even evoke emotions similar to the ones felt upon hearing the news.                                                                                                 Flashbulb memories are not as accurate or permantent as photographic memories but the flashbulbs memories’ forgetting curve is far less affected by time than is the case for other types of memories. Flashbulb memories are not always accurate nor immune to forgetting. Accuracy reduces during the first three months and levels at about twelve months                                        Which brain regions are involved in flashbulb memory, however, is uncertain. Flashbulb memories are thought to require the participation of the amygdala, a brain structure involved in emotional memory, and possibly other brain systems which regulate mood and alertness. Although medial temporal lobe/diencephalic damage impairs content or item memory, frontal lobe damage has been associated with impaired source memory medial temporal lobe/diencephalic and frontal lobe structures appear to play different roles in memory for flashbulb events.

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