SL - Emotion and cognition - flashbulb memories (genetics and behaviour - evolutionary explanations for behaviour)

Question 1

Sharot (2007)

Answer 1

Aim ->
To investigate the effect of emotion on FBMs

Method -> Ppts were placed in an fMRI scanner and then asked to retrieve autobiographical memories from cue words presented on screen. Ppts were either from downtown or uptown. The memories were either to be from an event from the summer of 2001 or from 9/11 (referred to as ‘September’ memories). Then ppts were asked, of the summer and September memories, to rate them on: arousal (strength of emotion), vividness, reliving,
remember/know (R/K), confidence, and valence (positive/negative). Finally ppts were asked to write a description of the two memories they had been recalling during the study.

Results ->
The downtown group’s memories of 9/11 elicited stronger emotions, were more vivid, were more frequently relived, were more clearly remembered, and were more confidently recalled than their summer memories.
The closer ppts were to the Twin Towers on 9/11 the bigger the difference between their two accounts (September and summer).
The left amygdalae of Downtown ppts showed significantly more activity during 9/11 recollections than when recalling summer memories.

Conclusion ->
The retrieval of memories of shocking public events affects the activation of the amygdala only when there has been a personal experience of the event.

Evaluation ->

✔ Triangulation of different data types - rating scales, descriptions, brain imaging, distance from and engagement with the event - increases the credibility of the conclusions.
✔ Supports Brown and Kulik (1977) - worked on the premise that there would be a biologically-distinct pathway for processing flashbulb memories and helped to support and refine an existing theory.

❌ Ethical issues (protection from harm) - Potential distress caused to ppts who had traumatic memories of 9/11 (mitigated by the sampling method and the gaining of informed consent).
❌ correlational study - correlation is not causation
❌ The findings can’t demonstrate the involvement of the amygdala in the formation of flashbulb memories, so this suggestion remains plausible but unproven.

Question 2

Brown and Kulik (1977)

Answer 2

Brown & Kulik proposed a list of characteristics that a memory should have in order to be classed as a ‘flashbulb’ memory
FBM ->
Unexpectedness and personal consequentiality are necessary for the formation of flashbulb memories.
The theory suggests that such memories must have a distinct biological pathway along which they are encoded. The adaptive value of being able to form such memories is that, once we’ve survived a life-threatening event, remembering how we got into such a situation will help us to avoid it in the future, and remembering how we got out of it will help us in subsequent similar situations. If one can accept the survival value of being able to form FB memories, and the assumption that survival-relevant behaviours must be biologically based, then it seems logical to conclude that FB memories have a biological underpinning that is different from the formation of ‘regular’ autobiographical memories.

Question 3

Talarico and Rubin (2003)

Answer 3

aim ->
To investigate the accuracy of FBMs in comparison to other autobiographical memories
Method -> Ppts were contacted and tested for their memory of hearing about the terrorist attacks on the United States the previous morning. They were then randomly assigned to one of three follow-up sessions: one week later, six weeks later, and thirty-two weeks later. All participants were asked a series of open-ended questions about how ppts had heard about the attack on the Twin Towers and also about an everyday event from the ppt’s life in the days before the attack. Each ppt, for each event, also completed a memory questionnaire.
Results -> Both types of memory lost accuracy and gained errors at the same rate over time, despite Participants consistently believing that their FB memories remained accurate, and FB memories retained their vividness and rating for being remembered significantly more than everyday memories.
Conclusion -> Flashbulb memories are no more accurate than other autobiographical memories, but they are more vivid and are more consistently believed to be accurate than everyday memories.

Evaluation ->

✔
✔

❌
❌

Question 4

Emotion

Answer 4

A physiological response to a situation that is given a cognitive label.