Pleasantness bias in flashbulb memories: Positive and negative flashbulb memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall among East and West Germans

Abstract

Flashbulb memories for the fall of the Berlin Wall were examined among 103 East and West Germans who considered the event as either highly positive or highly negative. The participants in the positive group rated their memories higher on measures of reliving and sensory imagery, whereas their memory for facts was less accurate than that of the participants in the negative group. The participants in the negative group had higher ratings on amount of consequences but had talked less about the event and considered it less central to their personal and national identity than did the participants in the positive group. In both groups, rehearsal and the centrality of the memory to the person's identity and life story correlated positively with memory qualities. The results suggest that positive and negative emotions have different effects on the processing and long-term retention of flashbulb memories.

Discriminating between changes in bias and changes in accuracy for recognition memory of emotional stimuli

“…The literature is converging on this assumption. For instance, emotional words are perceived more readily than neutral dence supporting a liberal response bias for recall of positive flashbulb memories (Bohn & Berntsen, 2007) and a selection bias for remembering positive autobiographical events (Schulkind & Woldorf, 2005). Induction of a positive affective state also increased the recognition bias of neutral words (Phaf & Rotteveel, 2005).…”

Remembering President Barack Obama's inauguration and the landing of US Airways Flight 1549: A comparison of the predictors of autobiographical and event memory

“…Significantly, researchers have failed to find a consistent relation between four of these variables and FBM consistency (for a review, see Talarico & Rubin, 2009). The one exception is personal significance (Bohn & Berntsen, 2007;Conway et al, 1994;Curci, Luminet, Finkenauer, & Gisle, 2001;Er, 2003;Neisser et al, 1996;Niedźwieńska, 2003;Otani et al, 2005), and the related constructs of importance to social identity (see Berntsen, 2009) and to personal identity (as, for instance, measured by the Centrality of Event Scale; CES, Berntsen & Rubin, 2006 As for memory for the public events that elicit FBMs (i.e., event memory), although the literature is much smaller, the results have been more consistent (for studies on event memory, see, for example, Bohannon, 1988;Coluccia, Bianco, & Brandimonte, 2010;Curci & Luminet, 2006;Hirst et al, 2009;Shapiro, 2006;Smith, Bibi, & Sheard, 2003;Tekcan, Ece, Gülgöz, & Er, 2003). In addition to personal significance or importance to one's identity (Coluccia et al, 2010;Curci & Luminet, 2006;Tekcan et al, 2003), emotional intensity (Bohannon, 1988;Coluccia et al, 2010;Smith et al, 2003) and rehearsal (Hirst et al, 2009;Shapiro, 2006) have also been found to be positively related to event memory accuracy.…”

Emotional valence and the functions of autobiographical memories: Positive and negative memories serve different functions

“…Furthermore, memories of positive events are generally reported with more clarity and vividness than memories of negative events, and they tend to involve more phenomenological reliving, sensory imagery, and a greater sense of mentally traveling back in time (e.g., Andersson et al, 2006;Berntsen & Thomsen, 2005;see Bohn & Berntsen, 2007, for a review). Finally, positive memories are shared more frequently in conversations than negative or traumatic memories (Bernt sen & Thomsen, 2005;Bohn & Berntsen, 2007;Byrne, Hyman, & Scott, 2001;Collins et al, 2007), suggesting that positive memories also serve important functions for social bonding.…”

“…acteristics of emotionally positive and negative memories (see, e.g., Bohn & Berntsen, 2007;Walker, Skowronski, & Thompson, 2003). It has been suggested that negative memories signal danger and the need for immediate reaction (e.g., Levine & Bluck, 2004;Taylor, 1991), whereas positive memories may have broader and more constructive uses (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005).…”