Flashbulb Memories

Chapter Four

“Real” Flashbulb Memories and Flashbulb Memories Across the Lifespan

One of the advantages of studying FMs associated with the announcement of public news is that large numbers of subjects can be identified some of whom, as we saw in the preceding chapter, may have FMs to the same item of news. Groups of subjects with and without FMs can then be contrasted (e.g. Brown & Kulik, 1977; Conway et al., 1994; Neisser, et al., 1991) and memory consistency can be tracked over time (e.g. Christianson, 1989; McCloskey et al., 1988; Pillemer, 1984). Despite these and other advantages, it is evident that there are very few public events which give rise to widespread formation of FMs. Instead, FMs are more frequently associated with private and ...