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The Importance Of Flashbulb Memories

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How can a human forget to turn the lights off when they leave the house, but remember exactly where they were when JFK was assassinated? The answer to this phenomenon has long been researched and the answer is a term referred to as flashbulb memories, which can be defined as a detailed and vivid memory that is stored on one occasion and retained for a lifetime (Schachter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Nock, 2015). These memories can be composed of insignificant but vivid details about the situation in which the news was received (Demiray & Freund, 2015). Flash bulb memories are believed to encompass various memories including positive and negative events that have affected entire nations or just one individual, and have correlation with age, proximity, and importance. …show more content…

Unfortunately, just as not all memories are positive not all flashbulb memories are positive. A negative flash bulb memory may be an American remembering exactly where they were when JFK was assassinated, while a positive memory for the same individual may be remembering exactly where they were when they learned of Osama Bin Laden’s assassination. The idea that one type of flashbulb memory is more likely to be created than the other has long been debated. A recent study by Demirav and Freund shows that neither of these memories appears to be more prevalent than the other. There participants of various ages and ethnicities were asked two recall the death of both Michael Jackson (negative flashbulb memory) and Osama Bin Laden (positive flashbulb memory), while both memories had different effects emotionally on the participants the recollection of a flash bulb memory was the same (Demirav and

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