Phantom flashbulbs: False recollections of hearing the news about Challenger

“Experiments that have utilized this test–retest approach have demonstrated that flashbulb memories are often inaccurate and that flashbulb memories are actually just as susceptible to memory distortion over time as ‘ordinary’ memories ( Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003; Weaver, 1993) and so it seems that…”

“These findings are consistent with other studies that have found high levels of memory distortions of personal information related to a news event (Bohannon & Symons, 1992; Finkenauer et al., 1998; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“…events like the Challenger explosion or the 9/11 terrorist attacks show source misattributions on delayed tests and confi dence that may be out of line with accuracy (e.g., Greenberg, 2004 ; Hirst et al., 2009 ; Neisser & Harsch, 1992 ; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000 ; Talarico & Rubin, 2003 ) .”

“One case in point are studies of flashbulb memories (Brown & Kulik, 1977), for which questions of consistency have been of substantial interest (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Pillemer, 1984; Rubin, 1992; Winningham, Hyman & Dinnel, 2000).”

“Although such “Xashbulb” memories do appear to be accompanied by subjective qualities such as vividness and conWdence, later research showed that they are not necessarily accurate (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003).”

“…interested in people’s memories for the circumstances in which they first hear about major public events, such as political assassinations (e.g., Brown & Kulik, 1977; Christianson, 1989) or natural or man-made disasters (e.g., Christianson & Engelberg, 1999; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Wright, 1993).”

“While these memories are often referred to as “flashbulb memories,” in homage to their seeming indelibility, studies reveal that the details presented in these recollections change over time (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Although not indelible (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003), FBMs seem to be less vulnerable to distortion and oblivion than event memory (Bohannon & Symons, 1992; Conway, 1995; Curci & Luminet, 2006), sustaining the hypothesis that FBMs and event memory rely on two Correspondence to:…”

“…results confirm a trend observed in previous flashbulb studies: researchers who initially indexed an event shortly after it occurred (Larsen, 1992; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Weaver, 1993) generally found lower levels of consistency than researchers who waited longer before obtaining the initial…”

“Previous researchers demonstrating inconsistent memories for momentous events have often relied on small sample sizes (Christianson, 1989, n � 40; McCloskey et al., 1988, n � 29; Neisser & Harsch, 1992, n � 44; Weaver, 1993, n � 22) and have measured degree of memory consistency without considering types of memory err…”

“Nevertheless, there are some factors influencing the level of belief in accuracy, such as emotional valence (e.g., Brown & Kulik, 1977; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003), clarity of the spatial context and narrative coherence (Rubin, 2005).”

“lenger space shuttle to determine where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news (30).”

“…endorsement of emotional memories (Windmann et al., 2002; Dougal and Rotello, 2007), sometimes it seems to correspond with an improved ability to remember at least some features of an arousing item’s presentation (Neisser and Harsch, 1992; Kensinger and Corkin, 2003; see review by Mather, 2007).”

“…and tragic aspects of the assassination itself, makes it impossible to use the data of the present study for resolving the issue of whether recall of emotion-arousing events is better (as Wagenaar & Groeneweg, 1990, argued) or worse (as Neisser & Harsch, 1992, argued) than that of neutral events.”

“The third major objective was to examine possible fluctuations in memory descriptions over long time delays and to assess the wrong time slice hypothesis of Neisser and Harsch (1992).”

“Ratings were made using a 3-point scale, developed by Neisser and Harsch (1992), that evaluates consistency regarding the people, location, and activities described in memory reports.”

“For example, based on the results of the 44 college students in the 2.5 years follow-up memory study, Neisser and Harsch (1992) found that false flashbulb memories persisted about 2.5 years even when participants were confronted with their own original writings that they had done on the day after…”

“In both kinds of memories, details fade as time passes; both kinds of memories are subject to interference from later experiences; and both can be systematically distorted over time (Ceci, 1995; Ceci & Loftus, 1994; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schacter, 1995, 1999; Zola, 1998).”

“To determine the consistency of participant ’ s reports between Session 1 and Session 2 we adapted a coding scheme employed by Neisser and Harsch (1992).”

“For example, even though people often perceive that such memories are accurate, such recollections can contain the same sorts of distortions one finds with other types of memories (Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Several other studies (Bohannon & Symons, 1992; Neisser & Harsch, 1992) also reveal a sharp decrease in accuracy after a 32-month delay.”

“42, 354–362 (2012) memories are often surprisingly inaccurate (Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Associations between confidence and the consistency of flashbulb memories range from strong (Schmolck et al., 2000; Weaver, 1993) to moderate (Kvavilashvili, Mirani, Schlagman, Foley, & Kornbrot, 2009; Winningham et al., 2000) and non-existent (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003).”

“The fact that flashbulb memories can sometimes be shown to change over time, and to incorporate outright errors2 (McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen, 1988; Neisser & Harsch, 1992), has been claimed to favor an important role for rumination in these kinds of memories (see Rime, Philippot, Boca, & Mesquita,…”

“To help resolve this issue, I undertook a new study (Neisser & Harsch 1992).”

“This distinction is crucial, however, because it helps to explain one of the most discussed and problematic issues in the research literature on flashbulb memories: their accuracy (Christianson, 1989; Larsen, 1992; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003).”

“1988 ; Neisser & Harch 1992 ), other studies find relatively high consistency indicating a high degree of accuracy in flashbulb memories ( Conway et al.”

“The method used to score consistency was a 3-point scale developed by Neisser and Harsch (1992), and similar to the method used by other researchers (e.”

“Even flashbulb memories, once considered the apex of precise and vivid recall, are now known to be systematically distorted (Neisser and Harsch 2006).”

“…for emotional events are vulnerable to distortion: Individuals often change their reports about how they first learned of an emotional event (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000; Weaver, 1993), and nonpresented emotional items can be falsely endorsed (e.g., Pesta,…”

““Flashbulb memories” for historically significant events (13), such as the assassination of Martin Luther King or 9/11, are marked by their vividness and confidence over time (while subject to distortion; 14–16 ).”

“Previous research has shown that individuals can also produce erroneous recall for events that were surprising, important and emotional – so called flashbulb memories (e.g. the Challenger shuttle disaster, 9/11; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Yet, as in eyewitness testimony (Loftus, 1975; Loftus & Zanni, 1975; Yuille & Cutshall, 1986), there is debate as to the degree to which these memories are susceptible to distortion and reconstruction over time (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000).”

“…memories is a particularly important issue, because the hallmark of an emotional memory may be the subjective richness with which it is remembered (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Rubin & # 2009 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business Address correspondence to:…”

“…a single individual (Linton, 1975; Wagenaar, 1986; White, 1982, 1989, 2002), or a single significant event (a “flashbulb” experience; e.g., Brown & Kulik, 1977; Conway, Skitka, Hemmerich, & Kershaw, 2009; Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Pillemer, 1984), and none has included children as well as adults.”

“Yet we also know that people’s memories of their experiences can be notoriously inaccurate (Loftus, Miller, & Burns, 1978; Neisser & Harsch, 1993 ).”

“However, many researchers have found inconsistencies in flashbulb memories after time delays (Hirst et al., 2009; Neisser and Harsch, 1992; Talarico and Rubin, 2003).”

“Moreover, although individuals can be highly confident about their memories, there often is little or no correlation between their confidence and the consistency of their memories (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmidt, 2004; Schmolck et al., 2000; Talarico & Rubin, 2003).”

“Although generally high recall and consistency are reported in flashbulb memory studies, there is also some inconsistency in the evidence (Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“measured by adopting the scale generally used in studies on flashbulb memory [20,21].”

“For example, Neisser and Harsch (1992) examined adults' recollections of how they heard the news of the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.”

“While in the first study on FBMs, Brown and Kulik (1977) advocated that FBMs were almost immune to changes, later studies emphasised that reconstructive aspects were highly active, thus making FBMs similar to ordinary memories (e.g. Neisser and Harsch, 1992; Wright and Gaskell, 1995).”

“Yet even highly emotional information is not immune to reconstructive memory inconsistencies over time (e.g., Schmolck, Buffalo & Squire, 2000; McCloskey, Wible, & Cohen, 1988), despite individuals’ confidence in these memories (e.g., Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Talarico & Rubin, 2003; 2007).”

“Several researchers have indicated that the presence and consistency of location, activity, and source serve as major attributes in ascertaining the existence of flashbulb memory (e.g., Hornstein, Brown, & Mulligan, 2003; McCloskey, 1992; Neisser & Harsch, 1992).”

“Much of the research conducted on the relationship between confidence and accuracy of eyewitness identifications has shown that there are relatively low correlations between the two (e.g. Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Wells & Murray, 1984).”

“Previous research on flashbulb memories has confirmed that recall for even highly emotional events can be inaccurate (Neisser & Harsch, 1992; Schmolck, Buffalo, & Squire, 2000).”