Talarico and Rubin Study (2003)

The Talarico and Rubin Study (2003)

Aim: The aim of the study was to see the properties of flashbulb memories and their influence of emotion on the person.Also, the aim was to see whether or not flashbulb memories are more consistent over time than everyday memories.

Procedure: The day after the attacks on the Trade Center (9/11) students at Duke were called on and were tested on memories of hearing about the terrorist attack the previous morning. To do this they used open-ended questionnaires to test them. One group of 18 participants, 4 male 14 female, was tested again 7 days later. The next group of 18, 6 male 12 female, was tested again after 42 days and the last group of 18, 4 male 14 female, was tested 224 days later.

Findings: They found that, just like several other studies, the recall consistency of these “flashbulb” memories was no different than that of everyday memories.

Conclusion: They concluded that Flashbulb memories are not immune to forgetting, and they aren’t any more accurate than other memories either. They fade just as quickly as other memories and have no mechanism to keep them preserved in our brains. The real only difference is the confidence in which they are answering the question. The people reporting these flashbulb are 100% sure their memories are correct.

Limitations: As most studies involving questionnaires, accuracy in which the participants answered the questions can never be known for sure. Also there are always questions on whether or not the participants where drawing from their own memories, or if their recollection  was influenced by the repeated coverage on media.

More Info:

http://911memory.nyu.edu/abstracts/talarico_rubin.pdf