Relating age at encoding in early childhood to adult recall: Development of flashbulb memories.

Abstract

Three hundred thirty-eight informants who were between 1 and 7 years of age in 1963 were asked about their personal memories surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy and six other significant public events. The probability and degree of elaboration of recall showed a gradual growth function with increasing age at the time of the event for the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy but not for the other events. Self-reports of amount of rehearsal showed a low correlation with recall. Recall was high for the resignation of President Nixon in 1974, suggesting that surprise is not necessary for the formation of enduring memories of significant events. Methodological advantages and disadvantages of studying early memories for public events are discussed.

Flashbulb memories and posttraumatic stress reactions across the life span: Age-related effects of the German occupation of Denmark during World War II.

“…For the WWII population in Study 1, a similar pattern was observed for the presence and vividness of participants' personal memories of the day of the German invasion and the day of their capitulation, (though vividness also correlated weakly with age after age 7). The findings related to memories for the two historical events agree with studies of childhood amnesia generally (e.g., Nelson, 1993;Rubin, 2000;Pillemer & White, 1989;Usher & Neisser, 1993) and more specifically with previous studies on age differences in the development of flashbulb memories (Berntsen & Thomsen, 2005;Teckan & Pernircio lu, 2002;Winograd & Killinger, 1983). The fact that the relation between longterm posttraumatic stress reactions and age at the time of the event mirrors the age-related ability of retaining autobiographical memories from childhood to adulthood has at least two possible interpretations: One possibility is that posttraumatic stress reactions (in terms of reexperiencing, avoidance and hyperarousal, American Psychiatric Association, 1994) depend on the presence of autobiographical memory abilities.…”

“…These two events seem especially appropriate for this type of analysis, since Berntsen and Thomsen (2005) found that among Danes who were at least nine years old at the time of the invasion, virtually everybody reported a memory for these two events. Here we extend Winograd and Killinger's (1983) study in four ways. First, by using samples of older Danes who were between 0 and 26 years old at the time of the invasion and between 0 and 31 years old at the liberation, we are able to analyze memory as a function of age, using a larger agespan than the 1-7 years span used by Winograd and Killinger for the assassination of President Kennedy.…”

“…Third, we use a representative sample of older Danes. Fourth, we examine memory for an emotionally positive and negative event that are matched with respect to theme and historical importance.As noted by Winograd and Killinger (1983), studying flashbulb memory as a function of age at the time of the event is relevant for our understanding of childhood amnesia. In addition, we add here that studies of this issue may also be relevant to our understanding of the development of lifelong PTSD symptoms as a function of age at the time of the traumatic event, since an ability to form vivid and detailed memories of discrete events can be considered as a precondition for meeting the PTSD diagnostic criteria of repeatedly reexperiencing the traumatic episode(s) in memory (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).…”

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

“…Apparently, memory researchers have found it easier to find highly surprising public events with a negative, rather than a positive, content. Also, Brewer's (1992) review of the role of surprise in the formation of flashbulb memories suggests, together with more recent work, that flashbulb memories for positive events often occur with low levels of surprise (e.g., Berntsen & Thomsen, 2005;Winograd & Killinger, 1983), whereas studies that have shown surprise as essential have been studies involving negative events (e.g., Christianson, 1989;Er, 2003;Finkenauer et al, 1998). Thus, mechanisms that are assumed to be crucial for the formation of flashbulb memories can be seen to interact with whether the target event is emotionally positive or negative.…”

Consistency of memory for combat-related traumatic events in veterans of Operation Desert Storm

“…On the one hand, memory for trauma is viewed as fixed or indelible, remaining remarkably accurate over the lifetime of the individual (1)(2)(3)(4). On the other hand, it is seen as malleable and subject to substantial distortion and alteration (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11).…”