Personal Narrative Memories : A Phenomenon That Occur Directly From The Discovery Of A Shocking Event Essay

Throughout our lives, we definitely have gone through a lot of experiences and made memories. Some of the memories are easily forgotten, while some others are remembered distinctively, vividly and can be recollected confidently. This is called the flashbulb memory. Flashbulb memory is like a very clear picture of a particularly impactful event which had caused one to be affected emotionally. For example, I remember this performance that my school choir was performing. It was during Christmas season and we decided to spray bubble foam to portray fake snow. However, the plan backfired when the wind blew at our direction and all the foam flew back to us. This was remembered very clearly because I was embarrassed and had experienced something so

Human memory is a peculiar thing and many people question the phenomenon of false memories. A false memory is the psychological phenomenon where a person recalls something that simply did not happen. Psychologists only know a limited amount about memory and how it works, there is plenty of information out there that is a mystery to us. The Mandela Effect is a type of memory glitch that has caused a lot buzz in recent years, it’s best referred to as an instance of collective misremembering. The name of the Mandela Effect came from Fiona Broome, who referred to herself as a “paranormal consultant.” She shared on her blog about how she noticed that she wrote about a false memory - that “Nelson Mandela, South African human rights activist and

The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of narrative chaining on memory. A total of 59 participants aged 10-69 years old took part in this experiment. They were chosen using convenience sampling and were split randomly into two independent groups. Participants had 30 seconds to memorise a list of words, either using maintenance rehearsal or narrative chaining to do so and then they were asked to write down as many words as possible after 2 minutes. Participants in the experimental group who used narrative chaining remembered a mean of 9.93 words out of 16 words with a mean percentage of 62% of words recalled. Participants in the control group who used maintenance rehearsal remembered a mean of 9.17 words

Most people from one time to another have had a memorable event within their lifetime. One memorable event that spread across the United States and affected many people is what is known as 9/11. This event affected many innocent lives, those that survived as well as those that did not. September 11th marks in history as a horrifying even that now affects people’s societal, political, and personal decisions. It is marked down as a day no U.S. citizen would forget.

PTSD is a serious issue faced throughout the military and the veteran population and has been recognized as such by the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense, and both the Department of Veteran Affairs and private-sector health care professionals. With this issue being in the spotlight a large amount of time, money and resources have been dedicated to the research of PTSD. The research conducted as of today has revealed a tremendous amount on how memories are

A flashbulb memory is a detailed snapshot of an event which evoked feelings of shock or surprise or were otherwise emotionally arousing (Brown and Kulik, 1977). Events which have negative emotions attached to them seem to be processed in a detail-attentive and conservative manner (Bless et al., 1996; Storbeck & Clore, 2005; Bohn and Bernsten, 2007). The age of a witness also seems to influence the formation of flashbulb memories. In a study by Cohen, Conway and Maylor (1993) most of the younger participants experienced flashbulb memory compared to less than half the older participants. They concluded that the main factor which influenced the formation of flashbulb memories for older participants was rehearsal of the events whereas in younger

Where were you when you heard about 9/11? When you hear about a traumatic event, time seems to stop. Most people remember every detail of their surroundings. Imagine living and breathing in a traumatic event.

Reading your post about 9/11 from such a young age was very interesting. My son was five at the time of the attacks and to this day he remembers the fact that he was upset because PBS interrupted their programming for the news coverage and he did not get to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog. My son may not remember the details of that day, but he will forever remember the disruption in his everyday routine caused by the attacks. Goldstein (2015) points out that the “idea that people believe flashbulb memories are stronger and more accurate has led to the conclusion that the special nature of flashbulb memories can be traced to the emotional nature of flashbulb events” (p. 216). For my son, he remembers his television programs being interrupted

The events of 9/11 were not only felt by those who had been directly affected but also by those who were not directly terrorized by the attacks. Hijackers flew jetliners into the New York Trade Center towers on September 11, 2002, sending both into a falling storm of smoke, glass, ash, and victims. During this event a third jetliner was high jacked and crashed into the Pentagon in Virginia (Schmemann, 2001). The attacks were devastating to the geographic area of the impact and have left a lasting imprint in our society and many psychological symptoms in people.

The experiment conducted by Loftus, Miller and Burns investigated how information supplied after an incident can affect the memory of those who witnessed it. In the article the experimenters tested the hypothesis that information received by a witness after an event will affect their memory of said event, whether or not it was accurate. This is of particular interest because if the information can affect a person's memory, this could very well discredit eyewitness testimony in criminal and civil trials. A person’s ability to encode accurate, relevant information into their memory is pertinent when giving a witness testimony in front of a judge and jury.

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” These words from Dr.Seuss still stand true, and are something I can relate to. I believe that you should always show your love and appreciation to your family members for what they do for you. Before my sister left for college, I didn’t realize how much I appreciated her and loved her for all the things she did for me.

There are two prominent distortions of the episodic memory system: forgetting and the false memory effect. False memory is the propensity to report an event as part of an episodic experience that was not actually present (Holliday, Brainerd, & Reyna, 2011). Several theories give an explanation for this effect, but the most prominent one is the fuzzy trace theory,

False memories include distorting features of events and situations or recalling facts and memories that never occurred at all (Roediger and McDermott, 1995).

Recollections of vivid autobiographical episodic memories formed when an individual experiences intense emotions, generating from a surprising public event defines Flashbulb memories (FBMs). Permanent and consistent remembrances processed cognitively and stored as explicit recollections in long term memory are additional features of FBMs (Goldstein, 2014). Brown & Kulik (1977) first proposed this phenomenon and argued FBMs are resistant to change like photographs. The ongoing debate over the process of cognition in relation to storing and recalling FBMs led numerous researchers to advance their understanding of the mental processing of FBMs and to evaluate the impact emotions have on memories. This paper discusses the pioneer investigation and findings from Brown & Kulik’s 1977. It further explores debates opposing their unique theory of FBMs and the apparent inadequacies of their conclusions. Additionally, this paper examines plausible hypotheses from researchers for the formation of FBMs like rehearsal of events and the inconsistencies of FBMs, their distortions and the decay FBMs experience over time. It then evaluates a contemporary study on FBMs and the necessity for future studies to develop a method to measure FBMs. This is imperative in order to gain a deeper understanding of the influences emotions have on shaping, processing and storing FBMs cognitively and consequently how it impacts on our daily lives.

Brown and Kulik discovered that these flash bulb memories were consistent over time. They did research on the death of Princess Diana and found that many people could remember a lot more than usual such as what time it was, who was with them etc. Such emotional events as September the 11th are very large scale and so many people will have flashbulb memories of the event making it easy to do a study and find proof of flashbulb memories. There is also evidence for forgetting as a result of repression. The main sort of evidence for repressed memories is a victim of crime. Many people who have been a victim of a crime can remember very little of it because emotion actually caused the memory to be repressed and forgotten. Freud helped to prove that people have repressed memories by using hypnosis that caused people to bring forgotten memories to light.