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Definition:
Remembering buying your first car --> specific experience
�Do you own a car?� --> personal fact
we remember more about the periods in time that defines us as people
Characteristics of Autobiographical Memory:
Memory of your wedding day...
What happened? --> memory for general features and specific details
What was it like? --> interpretation
Types of Autobiographical Memory:
image-based representation of a single unrepeated event
memory of your wedding day
identical to personal memory, except that the memory is not image-based
being able to answer �yes� to �Are you married?�
similar to a personal memory, except that the event is repeated or a series of similar events occur and are represented in a more abstract form
getting married for the 5th time --> memory of any particular wedding might be difficult to date exactly and might not contain many distinguishing features
Vividness of Autobiographical Memories: Flashbulb Memories
the assasination of JFK
the assasination of MLK
the Challenger explosion
the verdict in the OJ Simpson trial
Six �Canonical� Categories of Information in Flashbulb Memories (Brown & Kulik, 1977):
[STUDENTS CAN TRY THIS AT HOME!! --> ask family members, friends to write an account of some flashbulb memory]
Brown�s account of the assasination of JFK:
I was on the telephone with Miss Johnson, the Dean�s secretary, about some departmental business. Suddenly, she broke in with: �Excuse me a moment; everyone is excited about something. What? Mr. Kennedy has been shot!� We hung up, I opened my door to hear further news, as it came in, and then resumed my work on some forgotton business that �had to be finished� that day.
Kulik�s account of the assisnation of JFK:
I was seated in a sixth-grade music class, and over the intercom I was told that the president had been shot. At first, everone just looked at each other. Then the class started yelling, and the music teacher tried to calm everyone down. About ten minutes later I heard over the intercom that Kennedy had died and that everyone should return to their homeroom. I remember that when I got to my homeroom, my teacher was crying and everyone was standing in a state of shock. They told us to go home.
Major Determinants of Flashbulb Memories:
Criticisms of Flashbulb Memories:
Neisser�s (1982) erroneous flashbulb memory of Pearl Harbor:
For many years I have remembered how I heard of the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred on the day before my thirteenth birthday. I recall sitting in the living room of our house -- we only lived in that house for one year, but I remember it well -- listening to a baseball game on the radio. The game was interrupted by an announcement of the attack, and I rushed upstairs to tell my mother. This memory has been so clear for so long that I never confronted its inherent absurdity until last year: no one broadcasts baseball games in December!
Are Autobiographical Memories "True"?
.88 correlation for factual information among family members
.43 correlation for emotions and attitudes
What do Autobiographical Memories Represent?
