_______Neisser and Harsch
(1992)______________________________
Aim: The aim of this
study was see exactly how valid the concept of a Flashbulb memory is.
Procedure: To conduct
this study, a questionnaire was given to 106 different participants the next
day after the Challenger Space Shuttle Explosion. Some examples of the
questions asked were Where were they (the participants), What where they doing,
who told them, and at what it occurred. They later (3 years) sent out the same questionnaire
to the same group and compared that to the original.
Findings: Even though
these were thought to be flashbulb memories, the results showed that their
memories did in fact fade from the time they took the questionnaire to the time
they took it again later. They had originally had 220 facts but later were
either completely or partially wrong on 150 of them. Even with these steep errors,
the members where very confident about their correctness of their memory.
Conclusion: In the
end, they figured that flashbulb memories really aren’t as vivid and correct as
previously thought. They fade just as quickly as normal memories. The real only
difference in these memories is that when someone thinks they have a flashbulb
memory, they have very high confidence that they have all the details correct.
Limitations: Because
this information was collected through a questionnaire, it is nearly impossible
verify the precision of the reports.
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