Kulkofsky Et Al Study (cog, socio)

Question 1

Kulkofsky Et Al Study (cognitive)

Aim

Answer 1

To examine the impact of cultural (whether collectivist or individualistic) on the formation of flashbulb memories

Question 2

Kulkofsky Et Al Study (cognitive)

Procedure

Answer 2

• Participants from 5 countries: China, US, UK, Turkey and Germany (approx 270)
  
  1. “Retrieval fluency task” - Participants write memories of public events in their lifetime (5 min)
  2. “Memory questionnaire” on each event asking traditional FBM questions (Resulted in FBM score). Couldn’t remember finding out? = 0
     i) Where were you when you found out?
     ii) What time of the day?
     iii) How did you find out?
     iv) What were you doing?
     v) Who were you with?
     
     • Each answer scored a 1, no answer scored a 0. Each memory score out of 5.
  3. Participants rated questions on a Likert scale (1-7) for each memory including: National or international independence, Personal importance, Intensity of emotional reaction, Shock/surprise, Re-telling the event
• Researchers studied results of questionnaires to see if there was a connection between a particular question and formation of FBM

Question 3

Kulkofsky Et Al Study (cognitive)

Findings

Answer 3

• In a collectivistic culture like China, personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM
  
  • Focusing in the individuals own experiences is often de-emphasized in China, there would likely be less rehearsal of triggering event compared with participants of other cultures
• National importance were of equal importance of FBM formation across cultures
• Cultural dimensions may have an impact on the formation of FBM

Question 4

Kulkofsky Et Al Study (cognitive)

Strengths

Answer 4

• Informed consent - Instructions given by a native speaker and questionnaire was back-translated (one bilingual researcher translated the questions, another researcher translated answers back into English)

Question 5

Kulkofsky Et Al Study (cognitive)

Limitations

Answer 5

• Leading question - could have emphasized national events
• Ecological fallacy - just because someone is grouped into a cultural, it doesn’t mean that they actually adopt those cultural norms
• Study of memory is reliant on self-reported data (participant bias)

Question 6

Kulkofsky Et Al Study (cognitive)

Research Method

Answer 6

correlation research or semi-structured