Study: National tragedies create 'flashbulb memories'
When people are exposed to national tragedies through friends, family and the media, many report that details of the event are seared into the brain for decades. These 'flashbulb memories' include details of the event, but also along mundane memories of meals eaten, chores done and places visited.
Two researchers from Emporia State University are seeking responses from four states and three foreign countries about what people remember about the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack and other recent events.
The study expands upon a survey associate professor Lauren Shapiro gave to her psychology students in the hours after the terrorist attacks. She wanted to demonstrate a concept called "flashbulb memory" -- in which people have very vivid memories of their own personal lives when they learn shocking or tragic news.
"A flashbulb memory is sort of like a goldfish frozen in a pond," she said. "You remember the circumstances surrounding the event: where you were, the source of the information, what activity were doing, your emotional response, other people's emotional responses. It feels like an isolated memory, somehow different from other autobiographical memories."
Shapiro wanted to find out if memories of Sept. 11 somehow faded with time or if they remained fixed in place. In the first 36 hours after the attacks in New York and Washington, she quizzed 35 people about their memories surrounding the event. Over the next 12 months, she returned to the first group of respondents three more times, adding two new groups of respondents at later times.
"What we found was that people remembered it exactly the same. There was no information missing," she said.
Other similar studies which have used events like the fatal car crash of Princess Diana, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Challenger space shuttle explosion showed that people forgot details over time.
In a new, expanded survey, Shapiro and graduate student Erynne Haugen intend to find out if age, location, or personal connection makes a difference in people's memory of Sept. 11. The study is also designed to determine how the intense media coverage of the attack affects memory.
Questionnaires will be gathered from people in Kansas, Arkansas, New York City, California, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
"We want to include people from New York who have experienced direct and everyday consequences of the event, which shut down 30 blocks of their city. We want to see how their memories may be more specific than people from Kansas or overseas," said Haugen.
The two researchers expect to finish their study in time to present it with their original findings at an international conference in Scotland this summer.
The survey can be taken online at http://www.emporia.edu/parm/FBMSurvey.htm, but respondents must be at least 18 years old.
Last Updated October 2, 2008>