Flashbulb Memories

Chapter Six

Revising the Flashbulb Memory Hypothesis

The evidence for the existence of highly detailed, vivid and durable memories, FMs, is both extensive and compelling. The studies reviewed in Chapter 3 found FMs to be basically accurate and the findings considered in Chapter 4 strongly implicated the role of affect in the formation of FMs. Other findings, however, identified personal importance as the more critical factor in FM encoding. In contrast, rehearsal was rarely found to be associated with FMs. Moreover, a review of neuropsychological research suggested that there may, indeed, be isolatable brain processes that mediate the encoding of emotional memories. On balance, then, the findings would appear to favour, in broad outline, Brown ...