Phantom flashbulbs: False recollections of hearing the news about Challenger

“For example, Neisser and Harsch (1990) found that people changed their reco llections of the space shuttle Challenger disaster considerably after a number of years.”

“Loftus & Burns, 1982; Neisser & Harsch, 1990; Peters, 1988).”

“As studies with flashbulb memories have shown (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Rubin & Kozin, 1984; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000), this subjective vividness is not always correlated with the accuracy of the memory.”

“In reality, however, people’s accounts of these details change over time: Someone may initially state that he learned of the Challenger explosion from a friend, but six months later may note that he learned of the explosion from a television broadcast (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Flashbulb memories are usually recalled with a higher degree of confidence than other memories of equal age (Brown & Kulik, 1977; Talarico & Rubin, 2003), even when individuals are confronted with evidence that the event in memory could not have occurred as it is remembered (Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“…veridical accounts of the original event (Heider 1988) but undergo revision with repeated recollections and the passage of time (Neisser 1981; Neisser & Harsch 1992; Talarico & Rubin 2003), especially for the autobiographical components of those memories (Bergman & Roediger 1999; Coluccia et…”

“Space Shuttle explosion Negative Challenger (1986) [36] [35] [37] [246] [269] [397] Negative Columbia (2003) [185] [186]”

“People’s memories of Challenger or Columbia spaceshuttle explosions (Bohannon, 1988; Kensinger et al., 2006; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003) or the September 11th attacks (Budson et al., 2004; Paradis, Solomon, Florer, & Thompson, 2004; Pezdek, 2003; Smith, Bibi, & Sheard, 2003) are…”

“For instance, high confidence in memories of shocking public events such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 is often a poor predictor of the accuracy of memory for such events (Christianson & Engelberg, 1999; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000).”

“Most studies examining the subjective feeling of recollecting emotional events look at real-life arousing events, such as the Challenger explosio”

“…negative emotion on memory for detail stem from increased engagement of the same processes that benefit memory for nonemotional information or whether the benefits result Volume 16—Number 4 215 from engagement of processes specific to emotional memory (Brown & Kulik, 1977; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“In one study, Neisser and Harsch (1992) found that”

“For example, the assassination of Martin Luther King was associated with a high incidence of FB memories among black North Americans, compared with a significantly lower incidence for white North Americans. Compare this with FB memories for the attempted assassination of George Wallace, in which 50% of the white North…”

“…examined flashbulb memories for newsworthy events, such as actual or attempted assassinations (e.g., Brown & Kulik, 1977; Pillemer, 1984), public disasters (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Neisser et al., 1996), and other public events (e.g., Conway et al., 1994; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000).”

“…with extracts from earlier interviews and inviting their reflections on what they said (J. Smith, 2003)—which in some respects recalls the Neisser and Harsch (1992) interview regarding Challenger shuttle flashbulb memories where participants were presented with their earlier accounts…”

“…in studies of flashbulb memories has grown substantially, from initial questions about special mechanisms (McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen, 1988; Neisser & Harsh, 1992) to more recent questions about the impact of aging and dementia (Budson, Simons, Sullivan, Beier, Solomon, Scinto, et al.,…”

“Neisser (1982) argued that flashbulb memories were in fact not veridical records of the original • events (see Neisser & Harsch, 1992, for evidence that some flashbulb memories may be confabulations).”

“…ranging from 1 Thanks to Bill Merriman for suggesting this phrase. studies of eyewitness memory to flashbulb memories of dramatic events to simple list learning shows little relationship between confidence and accuracy (see for example, Neisser and Harsch, 1992; Roediger & McDermott, 1995).”

“…suggests that self-reports of past emotion are not always an accurate reflection of emotion actually experienced during the original event (Neisser & Harsch, 1992) and that past emotion correlates more strongly with remembering trauma details than does present emotion (Christianson &…”

“Researchers rarely have access to intense emotional reactions at the time they are occurring (e.g., Bohannon & Symons, 1992; Brown & Kulik, 1977; McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen, 1988; but see Linton, 1982; Neisser & Harsch, 1992 ).”

“…not necessarily accurate) memories of hearing about the event (e.g., for flashbulb memory studies of the Challenger space shuttle disaster, of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and of 9/11; see Curci & Luminet , 2006; Kvavilashvili, Mirani, Schlagman, & Kornbrot, 2003; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Neisser provides a good illustration of this point, noting that the global measure he used in one study dealing with hearing the news about the Challenger disaster (Neisser & Harsch 1992) had to be modified for use in another study dealing with hearing about an earthquake (Neisser et al., in press).”

“Memories for shocking events may import elements from other events, such as television footage seen later (Pezdek, 2003; Neisser & Harsch, 1992 ), and memory for peripheral details of such events is worst among people who find the event most emotionally powerful (Schmidt, 2004).”

“In a study examining memories of the Challenger disaster over a three-year interval, participants tended to recall that they had first heard the news from the TV and not, as they had initially recorded, from some other source (Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Brewer (1992) offered a similar explanation of some of the memory errors observed by Neisser and Harsch (1992) in their study of Flashbulb Memories of hearing the news that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded.”

“However, an equal number of studies have found no decrease (Christianson, 1989; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Paradis et al., 2004; Wright, 1993).”

“This agrees with the skepticism that many scholars have expressed concerning the maintenance of flashbulb memories over time (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmolck et al., 2000; Talarico & Rubin, 2003), and it is also supported by studies showing that the accuracy of flashbulb memories declines at…”

“…distinctiveness, novelty, and interest, are difficult to control in naturalistic studies (see, e.g., Cahill & McGaugh, 1995; Christianson, 1992; Christianson & Loftus, 1987, 1990, 1991; Christianson, Loftus, Hoffman, & Loftus, 1991; Larsen, 1992; McCloskey et al., 1988; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“In coding these data, we followed the procedure of Neisser and Harsch (1992) to obtain Weighted Attribute Scores (WAS) (Range ¼ 0 to 7). Mean WAS and mean scores on each of the five attributes of autobiographical memory are presented for each of the three groups in Table 2. Although the WAS were generally very high (o…”

“Real-life emotional events are generally thought to be remembered better than neutral ones (Brown and Kulik 1977; Neisser and Harsch 1992; Neisser et al. 1996).”

“Theoretical accounts conflict concerning whether memories for past emotions are stored permanently and accurately or whether they are subject to forgetting and distortion as are memories for other aspects of autobiographical events (e.g., McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen, 1988; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“ser, 1988b; Neisser & Fivush, 1994), and memory researchers have long recognized such memories as salient examples of the fragility of memory (Baddeley, 1989; Neisser, 1982; Neisser & Harsch, 1992 ).”

“E . va n G iezen et a l. / C lin ica l P sych o lo g y R eview 2 5 (2 0 0 5 ) 9 3 5 – 9 5 3 9 4 0 Neisser & Harsch, 1992 44 Challenger n.a. 41.5 Students 47 S 1 day 30 months 2 Norris & Kaniasty, 1992 65 Hurricane Hugo 70 18 44 n.a.”

“From numerous studies of flashbulb and other autobiographical memories, it is known that personal memories are not perfect, even when confidently stated (e.g. Christianson, 1989; Conway, Collins, Gathercole, & Anderson, 1996; Neisser & Harsch, 1993; Ross, 1989).”

“Reinstating the affective components linked to an item in memory could also explain its contribution to increases in vividness and confidence often reported for negative memories (Neisser and Harsch, 1992; Sharot et al., 2004).”

“As in previous research, they were unwilling to “give up” their autobiographical memories, considering them to be true accounts of past experiences even when presented with contrary evidence (Brewer, 1986; Neisser & Harsch, 1993 ).”

“Although people are unlikely to forget that these events happened, research suggests that people can misremember significant aspects of their flashbulb memories (e.g. Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000; Talarico & Rubin, 2007).”

“NEISSER, U. & HARSCH, N. (1992).”

“Summary. Another source of evidence that false memories might at times be phenomenologically compelling comes from studies of flashbulb memories (Brown & Kulik, 1977; Christiaansen, 1989; Neisser & Harsch, 1992 ).”

“…for emotional events (in general) are relatively static with the passage of time (e.g. Conway, Anderson, Steen, & Donnelly, 1994), whereas others have found them to be malleable and subject to substantial alteration (e.g. Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Southwick, Morgan, Nicolaou, & Charney, 1997).”

“Finally, we do not wish to leave the reader with the impression that distinctive or complex events will never be falsely remembered, as there is ample evidence that they can be (e.g., Garry, Manning, Loftus, & Sherman, 1996; Lindsay, Hagen, Read, Wade, & Garry, 2004; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“They are supposed to be triggered by both emotional reactions to the original event and rehearsal processes (Brown & Kulik, 1977; Finkenauer, Luminet, Gisle, El-Ahmadi, van der Linden, & Philippot, 1998; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“…memories with reference to so-called canonical categories of the reception context, including time, location, other people present, details of the reception context, ongoing activity, and changes in ongoing activity (Bohannon, 1988; Brown & Kulik, 1977; Conway et al., 1994; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Neisser has long argued that memory has a social function (Neisser, 1980; Neisser & Harsch, 1993).”

“They obtained recollections as soon after a major, emotionally charged public event occurred as they could, and then after a substantial delay, usually a few months (e.g., Bohannon & Symons, 1992; Neisser & Harsh, 1992).”

“Although some research has suggested that emotion may primarily inflate a person’s confidence in a memory (e.g., Dougal & Rotello, 2007; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Sharot et al., 2004; Talarico & Rubin, 2003), the present results emphasise that emotion can elicit mnemonic benefits.”

“However, many studies have shown that flashbulb memories can be erroneous despite the great confidence with which they are held (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003).”

“That is, studies have shown that one’s recollection of a stressful experience can often be dramatically different from the actual circumstances surrounding the original experience (Loftus and Burns 1982; Neisser and Harsch 1992; Kirschbaum et al. 1996; Diamond et al. 1996, 2001; Metcalfe and Jacobs 1998; Diamond and P…”

“The overlap of the two memory representations in the lower right diagram of Figure 1 illustrates the well-described finding that two different experiences that occur closely in time may be spliced together to become a single composite memory (Neisser and Harsch, 1992; Weingardt et al., 1995).”

“…memories’’ have suggested that perhaps limbic engagement enhances primarily the former, as individuals often report high confidence in their memories of emotional events even when they are not remembered accurately (Talarico and Rubin, 2003; Winograd and Neisser, 1992; Neisser and Harsch, 1992).”

“In fact, there often is little correlation between an individual’s confidence in a memory and the consistency of that memory (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000; Talarico & Rubin, 2003).”

“The emergence of such false memories often reminds us of human fallibility, as highlighted by the inconsistencies in recollection of personal events surrounding the Challenger disaster (Neisser and Harsch, 1992).”

“For the delayed test, we used a measure of congruence similar to that adopted by Cohen et al. (1994), Conway et al. (1994), and Neisser and Harsch (1992) .”

“…elizabeth.kensinger@bc.edu (E.A. Kensinger). erroneously but confidently identify a perpetrator (e.g., Charles, Mather, & Carstensen, 2003; Wells et al., 1998; Woocher, 1976) or of individuals who vividly recollect inaccurate details of past emotional experiences (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”