Improving Flashbulb Memories
Can flashbulb memories be improved? A number of studies have found that flashbulb memories are formed immediately after a life changing event happens or when news of the event is relayed. Although additional information about the event can then be researched or learned, the extra information is often lost in memory due to different encoding processes. A more recent study, examining effects of the media on flashbulb memories for the September 11, 2001 attacks, shows that extra information may help retain vivid flashbulb memories. Although the researchers found that memory for the event decreased over time for all participants, looking at images had a profound effect on participants memory. Those who said they saw images of the September 11th attacks immediately retained much more vivid images 6-months later than those who said they saw images hours after they heard about the attacks. The latter participants failed to encode the images with the original learning of the event. Thus, it may be the images themselves that lead some of the participants to recall more details of the event. Graphic images may make an individual associate more with the horror and scale of a tragic event and hence produce a more elaborate encoding mechanism. Furthermore, perhaps looking at images may help individuals retain vivid flashbulb memories months, and perhaps even years, after an event occurs.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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