The role of event relevance and congruence to social groups in flashbulb memory formation

The days we never forget: Flashbulb memories across the life span in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by autobiographical memory deficits, with the ability to retrieve episodic-rich memories being particularly affected. Here, we investigated the influence of AD on a specific subtype of episodic memories known as flashbulb memories (i.e., the ability to remember the personal circumstances for the reception of important news events). We examined the frequency, characteristics, and the temporal distribution of flashbulb memories across the life span. To this aim, 28 older adults diagnosed with AD and a matched sample of 29 healthy older controls were probed for flashbulb memories for two historical events from each decade of their lives. They also estimated the subjective degree of reexperiencing for the memories reported. AD participants showed impaired access to flashbulb memories, the frequency of reported memories being lower than for healthy older adults. However, qualitative aspects of AD participants' flashbulb memories were quite similar to those of the controls, as no group differences were obtained with respect to the canonical categories or degree of reexperience. AD participants' flashbulb memories clustered during the early years of their life, consistent with a reminiscence bump, whereas healthy controls also reported memories dated to later lifetime periods. Our results suggest that probing for personal memories of important public events may serve as a powerful cue for detailed episodic memories in AD.

Flashbulb and first-hand memories for campus closings due to COVID-19: consistency and change

Flashbulb memories (FBM) refer to the vivid and detailed retrieval of the reception context of a highly salient event. We examined FBMs and personal memories for one college's sudden transition to remote learning due to COVID-19. We explored whether the announcement of the campus' closure resulted in FBMs, how respondents felt about the decision, and the impacts of the decision. Employing a two-wave longitudinal survey conducted in March and May 2020, participants responded to questions regarding learning about the campus' closure and a control memory (an event from the same week chosen by participants). Participant reports suggested they did form FBMs, and FBMs were more consistent over time than control memories. Confidence did not differ across memory types. Additionally, we observed an initial strong positive response to the decision to close the campus - a sentiment that intensified over time. Lastly, participants' emotional responses transitioned from negative feelings in the first wave of testing to more neutral feelings in the second. This work offers a unique exploration of FBMs within the broader context of a global health crisis that intruded into daily life, effectively merging the typically public and distant nature of flashbulb events with first-hand, personal experience.

Sex differences in the context dependency of episodic memory

Context contributes to multiple aspects of human episodic memory including segmentation and retrieval. The present studies tested if, in adult male and female mice, context influences the encoding of odors encountered in a single unsupervised sampling session of the type used for the routine acquisition of episodic memories. The three paradigms used differed in complexity (single vs. multiple odor cues) and period from sampling to testing. Results show that males consistently encode odors in a context-dependent manner: the mice discriminated novel from previously sampled cues when tested in the chamber of initial cue sampling but not in a distinct yet familiar chamber. This was independent of the interval between cue encounters or the latency from initial sampling to testing. In contrast, female mice acquired both single cues and the elements of multi-cue episodes, but recall of that information was dependent upon the surrounding context only when the cues were presented serially. These results extend the list of episodic memory features expressed by rodents and also introduce a striking and unexpected sex difference in context effects.

A tetrahedral model of autobiographical memory research design

The field of autobiographical memory can do more to be representative of global populations experiencing and recollecting diverse events across the lifespan. To inspire such work, I present a general model for designing autobiographical memory studies. The tetrahedral model (based on Jenkins, 1979) has at its vertices context (e.g., the situated environment, activated schema, or functional goal), outcomes (e.g., the content and phenomenology of remembering), participants (e.g., the demographic characteristics and traits of the individual), and events (e.g., the lived experiences that comprise an individual's autobiography). Further, the area of the base of the pyramid can represent the time frame under investigation (e.g., the wider the distance, the greater the delay between an experience and its retrieval) and the height of the pyramid can represent the sample size (e.g., nearly flat for a case study, increasingly taller for larger groups) being studied. After applying the model to describe how typical autobiographical memory research is conducted (and briefly identifying the limitations therein), representative models of particularly promising areas of research are highlighted. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Memory.

Consistency and social identification: a test-retest study of flashbulb memories collected on the day of the 2016 Brussels bombings

Flashbulb memories are consistent and vivid representations of the way people learnt of an important, surprising and consequential event. We had two main aims for this study. Our first aim was to evaluate the consistency of flashbulb memories as accurately as possible (by collecting data on the day and using an interview method at retest) and contrast these findings with other operationalisations such as vividness or confidence but also with event memory. Our second aim was to capitalise on the particular case-study that is Belgium to examine social identification. Within a few hours after the terrorist attacks in Brussels in March 2016, a small sample of students completed a questionnaire on the way they learnt about the event and their knowledge of it. Retest data was obtained fifteen months later, through an in-depth interview. Our results show a relatively high consistency over time as well as high vividness and confidence for their memory of the reception context. We also measured participants' identification at three levels: local (Brussels) - national (Belgium) - supranational (Europe). In the particular context of the Brussels bombings, social identification with Brussels and Europe correlated with measures of flashbulb memory while social identification with Belgium did not.

Remembering the Super-Typhoon: Some, but Not All, Qualities of First-Hand Survivor Memories of Natural Disaster Are Similar to Near Death Experience and Flashbulb Memory Accounts

The strongest storm in Philippines history, super-typhoon Haiyan, barreled through central Philippines in 2013 and left a high death toll and extensive destruction in its wake. Past studies have investigated Fading Affect Bias (FAB) in extremely negative situations like the death of a loved one and found that the FAB generally occurs in those extreme situations, but this study is the first to assess FAB in first-hand memories for a natural disaster survival situation. The FAB phenomenon is the tendency for emotional intensity associated with negative memories for events to fade over time and emotional intensity for positive events stays relatively stable over time. Researchers collected memories for the super-typhoon from survivors three years after the event. Results showed that negative emotional intensity for the event faded after the event. Emotion in comparison positive memories for non-typhoon events did not fade, and emotion in comparison negative memories faded, following results in several other FAB studies. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) was used as an initial assessment of mood before the study began, and PANAS scores reliably predicted current emotional intensity scores. Memory vividness and emotional intensity in first-hand accounts of a natural disaster experience behave like vividness and intensity in flashbulb memories, but details in first-hand accounts are similar to the amount of details in memories of near-death experiences. How memory rehearsal behaves in relation to time elapsed since event has yet to be captured for first-hand survival experiences.