effect of emotion on memory Flashcards
FBM
Flashbulb memories - highly detailed vivid snapshots of a moment relevant and shocking news was heard.
A type of autobiographical memory
They are questioned for not having real-accuracy but rather perceived accuracy
research methods and participants neisser and harsch
Case study
Longitudinal
Prospective
106 university psychology students
procedure of landry and bartling
Morning after challenger disaster: questionnaire
What time was it?
How did you hear about it?
Where were you?
What were you doing?
Who told you?
Who else was there?
How did you feel about it?*
How did the person who told you seem to feel about it?*
What did you do afterward?
2.5 years later they were given it again but this time asked to rate their confidence on a scale of 1-5
They were aso asked if they had done this before and only 25% said yes
Few months later, semi structured interviews were completed to see if they would match the second or first questionnaire. Taped and transcribed. They tried to prompt original memories for those who had significant differences with specific questions
results neisser and harsch
The researchers were shocked by the discrepancies. Eg
24 hours after; i was in class, i watched it on tv
2 years later; i was in my dorm, i called my parents,
Ect ect
To come up with a score they were given a point if they matched the original response in terms of content not emotion
Mean: 2.95/7
- 11 scored 7
- 22 scored less than 2
Yet despite the low accuracy they had an average rating of confidence of 4.17/5
conclusion neisser and harsch
Flashbulb memories are susceptible to distortion over time though there is confidence in accuracy
strentghs neisser and harsch
- Case study, it was longitudinal and prospective meaning data is collected from the same participants over an extended period of time
- Method triangulation; between questionnaires and interviews
- High ecological validity
- There are many studies which have the same results so increasing transferability eg
Talarico and rubin
weaknesses neisser and harsch
- Cannot be replicated
- Participant attrition; ones who dropped out over time
- Naturalistic, meaning confounding variables cannot be controlled, eg how much the event was discussed, media, behaviours
- Demand characteristics could have altered confidence rating levels
aim of sharot
To discover the biological role on flashbulb memories
participants and research method sharot et al
24 participants who were in new york on 9/11. Recruited through advertisements
Quasi experiment aims to establish a cause and effect relationsip between an independent and dependant variable
reasearch methods and procedure shartot et al
3 years after 9/11 - provided consent and were given money for participation
Put into fMRI
- Shown the word summer or september to have the participant link the word with summer or 9/11
- Shown a word along side this eg - hands, reading, drink, homework
- Summer; served as a baseline of brain activity to evaluate the effect of 9/11 memories
Asked to rate memories for
Vividness
Detail
Confidence
Accuracy
Arousal
results sharot
Only 50% recalled having flashbulb memories. These people tended to be closer to the attack. They also have more written memories
Activation of amyglanda was higher when recalling attack than summer, but only for those closer to attack. The peple futher away had similar amyglanda in both recall.
strengths sharot
fMRI is biological evidence
reliability
weaknesses sharot
- Correlational, no cause and effect
fMRI makes it highly artificial - Fails to explain the people who have vivid memories but wer not close to attack
- Small culturally bias culture. Other research says individualistic cultures are more susceptible toFBM. Low generlizability
