What is your earliest and most clear

memory that you will probably never forget?

Can you answer these questions?1. Do you remember where you were you when

you first heard about Michael Jackson’s death?

2. How did you feel about it?

3. How did you come to hear about the death?

4. Were others present, or were you on your own?

5. What else was going on at the moment you received the news?

Did you form a flashbulb memory?

People remember very specific details of where they heard

about the following events-what do they have in common?

Space shuttle Challenger

Assassination of Martin Luther King

Death of Princess Diana

Assassination of J.F. Kennedy

Bombing of the Twin Towers

Flashbulb memories (FBM’s)

• “memories of the circumstances in which one first learned of a very surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) event” Brown and Kulik (1977)

• This is a special kind of emotional memory, that appears to be recorded in the brain as though with the help of camera’s flash.

According to Brown and Kulik’s theory, Flashbulb memories:• Form in situations where we encounter surprising

and highly emotional information.

• Are maintained by means of overt rehearsal (involving discussion with others) and covert rehearsal (private rehearsing or ruminating).

• Differ from other memories in that they are more vivid, last longer, and are more consistent and accurate.

• Require for their formation the involvement of a specialized neural mechanism which stores information permanently in a unique memory system.