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Recall of the Hillsborough disaster over time: Systematic biases of ‘flashbulb’ memories
Author(s) -
Wright Daniel B.
Publication year - 1993
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.2350070205
Subject(s) - recall , psychology , event (particle physics) , cognitive psychology , football , history , physics , archaeology , quantum mechanics
The class of memories, described within the literature as flashbulb memories, are susceptible to the same type of systematic biases as everyday memories. These systematic biases, which are consistent with schematic or reconstructive memory theories, were observed in subjects' recalls of the Hillsborough football disaster. Subjects ( n = 247) recalled their circumstances when they first heard about the event, gave ratings of various characteristics of the event and wrote down other events of which Hillsborough reminded them. Each of these measures exhibited systematic biases. It is argued that the most consistent explanation for the phenomena requires ordinary reconstructive memory processes and not a special mechanism as postulated within the original definition of flashbulb memories.