Friday, April 4, 2008
Flahbulb memories
I'm not too sure if we went over the memory chapter (chpt. 8) in the textbook, but I was reading through it, and the section on the flashbulb memory caught my eye. There is a small picture of a plane hitting one of the twin towers and a caption underneath that says: "Many people have vivid 'flashbulb' memories of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. But even flashbulb memories are not always complete or accurate, and they often change over time. For exapmle, some people are convinced they saw the first attack on television as it was occuring, but that is impossible, as no film crews knew in advance it would happen!" This caption made me think back to that day, and I guess I had somewhat of a flashbulb memory of my Italian teacher suddeny stopping the lesson to talk to the assistant principal. She then looked shocked and the whole class panicked. The classroom across the hall was in perfect view of the towers and saw it happen. That memory, is one that will never change. But, back to the flashbulb memory, every time I think of something there is a flashbulb memory tied to it. This technique is said not to be always accurate, but then again, full memories are twisted most of the time. I guess there will never be a way to tell if memories are accurate or not. What do you think?
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4 comments:
That day my class had a perfect view of the towers also. We were on the top floor. We didn't see it as it happened, but we saw them on fire. Someone came to the room to talk to our teacher and she was a little flushed also. They wouldn't tell us what was going on though but it spread pretty quick.
I remember that day pretty well as I remember a lot of other days. I don't think that memory is going to be twisted in any way. Sort of like the memory of the night my Uncle died. I remember my mom got a call to go over to the house. She was... crying like I've never seen. And then later I was sitting across the table from my dad, he got a call, then hung up, and told me my uncle was dead. I was 7 at the time so I didn't really get it. It didnt really hit me until I got older. He was 28 so its not like it was bound to happen in his old age or anything.
But no, there's no way I can think of for anything or anyone to show the accuracy of memories because no one but YOU know what YOU saw. No one else will have that point of view but you. No one else will see exactly what I saw on certain days, so I dont think it'll ever be possible to know how accurate your memories really are.
I remember that I was at school in Argentina when the 09/11 incident happened. It was so distant, and the only mean of view that I had was my 19 inches TV at the moment. So I guess I didn't live what you guys lived that day
I remember that I was still in Korea and was in my class with watching the accident on tv. But if I think about it more, the 9/11 happened during the day in US time which means it was night in Korean time with 13 hour time difference. Therefore watching it on the screen during the day time at school might be not the first time I heard about the accident or saw it. I guess this is the perfect example for flashbulb memory by media?
Flashbulb memories are not necessarily accurate in every respect, but they demonstrate that the emotional content of an event can greatly enhance the strength of the memory formed. 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.
Further reading: D. Schacter (1996).
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