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Flashbulb memories are special after all; in phenomenology, not accuracy
Author(s) -
Talarico Jennifer M.,
Rubin David C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
applied cognitive psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.719
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1099-0720
pISSN - 0888-4080
DOI - 10.1002/acp.1293
Subject(s) - recall , psychology , consistency (knowledge bases) , phenomenology (philosophy) , cognitive psychology , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , epistemology , philosophy
Consistency of flashbulb memories (FBMs) of the 11th September terrorist attacks and of everyday memories (EDMs) of the preceding weekend do not differ, in both cases declining over the following year for a group of Duke University undergraduates. However, ratings of recollection, vividness and other phenomenological properties were consistently higher for FBMs than for EDMs across time. Belief in the accuracy of memory was initially high for both memories, but declined over time only for EDMs. These findings confirm that FBMs are not extraordinarily accurate, but they may systematically differ from EDMs in other meaningful ways. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.