The Pioneer Investigation From Brown & Kulik Essay

In the article You Have No Idea What Happened by Maria Konnikorva there is a quote near the end of the reading that really sums up human memory. Lila Davachi, a N.Y.U. neuroscientist who performed an experiment on emotional memories said that “the goal of memory isn’t to keep the details. It’s to be able to generalize from what you know so that you are more confident in acting on it.” This experiment was to test people’s memory after getting an electric shock to images. The results showed that people’s memory of the images tied with the shocks were enhanced as well as similar images from a test before without any shocks. Davachi was not just referring exclusively of the people that participated in the experiment, but to humankind as a whole.

John Brown was a revolutionary abolitionist who felt very strongly about ending slavery. He was born in 1800 and died in 1859. His birthplace was Torrington, Connecticut. He belonged to a very loving family with very strong anti-slavery beliefs. He tied the knot twice and brought forth 20 children from those unions.

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

The study of creation of false memories has been a topic of interest since the 1930s when Bartlett (1932) conducted the first experiment on the topic. Though the results of this experiment were never replicated, they contributed greatly to research by distinguishing between reproductive and reconstructive memory (Bartlett 1932 as cited in Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Reproductive memory refers to accurate production of material from memory and is assumed to be associated with remembering simplified materials (e.g., lists). Reconstructive memory emphasizes the active process of filling in missing elements while remembering and is associated with materials rich in meaning (e.g., stories).

Many things influence a person’s overall perception and opinions about the world around them, such as their education, geographic location of upbringing, or religious views. All of these factors, combined with countless others, shape each person into who they are and how they interact with society. The time period a person lives through is another exceptionally important contribution, as it is creates the entire backdrop of their experiences -- socially, economically, and politically. A psychoanalytical look at O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, explains how the social and cultural implications of Willa’s life are transferred to this piece of literature. I believe that Willa Cather created the primary, male characters in O Pioneers! based on the unfortunate experiences she had with men in her early adulthood, which caused these strongly biased characters, while the female characters are given exaggerated positive personality traits.

Hi my name is John Brown,do you ever wonder who had over five sons and helped start the civil war. Yep you bet that was me I John Brown raided one of the southerners biggest military supplies outposts. The reason I did this rational idea was to cause a slave uprising in the south,Anyways moving on to how I became a hero to the north but a terrorist to the south. I was born in 1800 in Hudson Ohio,my father was Owen Brown and my early life was wild I was made part of an Indian tribe as a young boy and I also tamed a squirrel like a dog. After this I was big in reading I studied a lot about slavery and started a passion for hating it. After this I moved to Missouri and married Marry Brown. After that it's hard to remember all of them but I had over ten children in my lifetime.

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

On the other hand, Sharot et al carried out a study that supported this theory in 2007. The aim was to determine the role of biological factors on flashbulb memories three years after the 911 attacks. It included 24 participants who were in New York City on that day. Their brain activity was observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging as they recalled the event, as well as other distinct, autobiographical events from the summer of 2001. The latter served as baseline memories for evaluating the nature of 9/11 memories. After the fmri, participants were asked to rate their memories depending on how vivid, detailed, confident, and accurate they thought they were.

In recent years there has been a hot debate between "repressed" vs. "false" memories. Neurobiological studies show that both suppression and recall and the creation of false memories are possible. This paper evaluates the evidence but forth by both sides of the controversy and concludes that both are feasible and separate phenomenon, which occur at significant rates in our society.

Memory – what it is, how it works, and how it might be manipulated – has long been a subject of curious fascination. Remembering, the mind-boggling ability in which the human brain can conjure up very specific, very lucid, long-gone episodes from any given point on the timeline of our lives, is an astounding feat. Yet, along with our brain’s ability of remembrance comes also the concept of forgetting: interruptions of memory or “an inability of consciousness to make present to itself what it wants” (Honold, 1994, p. 2). There is a very close relationship between remembering and forgetting; in fact, the two come hand-in-hand. A close reading of Joshua Foer’s essay, “The End of Remembering”, and Susan Griffin’s piece, “Our Secret”, directs us

Déjà vu is known as a phenomenon in various cultures all over the world. Individuals who have experienced déjà vu, are often left in a state of confusion. Research indicates that in the medical field, multiple déjà vu occurs within three types of individuals. These include suffering from temporal lobe damage, mental disorders, or creative thought compared to the actual déjà vu experience. “Déjà vu phenomena are not uncommon in the general population but their association with strong affective features and any suggestion of disturbances of consciousness should prompt a search for temporal lobe epilepsy,” (Dubrey, Abdel-Gadir, Rakowicz, 2011.) Due to the nature of and explanations of what déjà vu is, no evidence has been provided to show existence. No standardized testing has been created or established to measure or provide proof that déjà vu occurs. There is a lack of research and discussions on individuals without brain damage, mental disorders, or cognitive trauma that recognizes that déjà vu occurs, yet there are individual reports that it was experienced. Instead, déjà vu is really a matter of perspective, based on the definition of what the individual understands or believes it is and, when and how it occurs. There is scientific based evidence that supports disruptions in memory which include recognition and recall. The purpose of this paper is to identify a realistic definition and explanation of déjà vu is, specifically failures in memory recall and

Affect influences many areas of cognition and has a large impact on memory (Robinson, Watkins, & Harmon-Jones, 2013; Packard, Cahill, & McGaugh, 1994). It has been shown that extreme emotional stress can impair memory, while moderate levels of emotional stress can improve learning and memory (Packard et al., 1994). In humans, emotional content is remembered better than non-emotional content and is richer in details (Choi, Kensinger, & Rajaram, 2013). However, it is not totally clear how emotion influences false memories. Past research has examined the effect of emotion on false memories and has reported mixed findings where emotional intensity has increased and decreased false memory (Choi et al., 2013). Storbeck and Clore (2005) found definite results showing that negative emotional affect reduces false memories in adults. The goal of this research is to investigate how positive and negative affective states influence false memory in children and the effect of emotional regulation strategies on memory formation.

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.

Memory facilitates necessary functions in daily life activities, but it is not a perfect mechanism in operation. Goldstein (2011) states that memory is, “…the process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present” (p.116). There are many adaptive functions within the complexities of the human memory system and the interlinked constructs between each function leave room for doubt in the accuracy of recollection. Study of the human mind has opened avenues of discovery on the inner workings of our brains and the resulting knowledge suggests that humans are prone to creating false memories and even remembering things that never actually happened. A great deal of information has been written explaining the nature of memory errors and within the following pages a real-life case offers a glimpse into how recall distortions and memory errors can wield unpleasant consequences. Memory errors can be avoided with a significant effort, but the truth remains that no one is perfect and memories are subject to individual bias.

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.