Flashbulb Memories

by Grace Housey

Have you ever recounted a memory and felt as if you could replay that exact moment in your mind with incredible clarity? Maybe you are thinking of a particular milestone in your life, a natural disaster, or historical event. Some examples could be your high school graduation, Hurricane Katrina or 9/11.  As you picture this moment in your mind, think of the wide variety of details you are able to imagine such as things like time, place, people, events, consequences and more. This snapshot of a particular moment is defined as a flashbulb memory, but why are they remembered so vividly and are they really that accurate?

A flashbulb memory is an example of an episodic memory – a memory of something that you have experienced. An episodic memory can be formed through three steps: encoding, storage and retrieval. For a memory to be encoded, different sensations are turned into a neural code in the hippocampus. This code is then stored when sensations and thoughts are bound together and tagged to allow you to retrieve this moment later. Tags can be created by novelty, arousal, goal relevance and attention. Flashbulb memories are usually remembered best because they are events that are typically tagged since they are emotional, surprising or personally or culturally important. This effect can also be seen in a 2021 study by Peterson, Rogers and Bailey that found when event boundaries, which are moments throughout an ongoing activity, are accentuated with emotional stimuli, it helps the event to be better remembered. Once a memory is stored, it can then be accessed again through the process of retrieval. Retrieval occurs after a cue triggers an episodic memory and the more frequent a retrieval occurs, the better the memory of this event is over time. Flashbulb memories are typically important and memorable moments in a person's life leading them to be retrieved frequently. This results in an improved memory of the event and increased confidence in that memory. Additionally, when a flashbulb memory is retrieved there are six certain details that are usually recalled: place, ongoing activity, informant, own affect, others affect, and aftermath.

One flashbulb memory I have is my memory of receiving my college acceptance. I can picture myself sitting at my desk, anxiously refreshing my application portal on my laptop when the clock hit five o'clock and immediately calling my family and friends to share my news. I remember feeling shocked, excited and so relieved that all my work from the past four years had finally paid off. This event was emotional and distinctive because I knew it would greatly impact my future, and as a result I did not need to actively try and remember each specific detail of this moment. Instead, its emotional and distinctive characteristics allowed this event to be tagged in my hippocampus for storage. Despite all the details I can provide about this moment in my life, I  know flashbulb memories are rarely entirely accurate.

The more I think about this moment I realize I can't exactly remember what objects were sitting on my desk or the weather outside my window, unlike what a picture would be able to provide. Despite my confidence in exactly what happened, I realize my recollection of events may be missing a few details or carry a few inaccuracies. The 1977 study by Brown and Kulik, the researchers who coined the term flashbulb memories, found that these emotional memories often missed small details making them less like a photograph taken by a flashbulb. Instead it is common to have small distortions or gaps in a flashbulb memory.

Additionally, despite my confidence in my college acceptance memory, a 1992 study by Neisser and Harsh found that confidence does not always correlate with accuracy in flashbulb memories. In this study, Neisser and Harsh asked college students to recall the time when they first learned of the Challenger explosion. Then, ten months later, the researchers again asked students the same question and also asked the students to rate their confidence in their memory. They found that while participants were able to give detailed reports of their memory and claimed to be incredibly confident, many details between the two memories were inconsistent. This study reinforced the idea that despite many people's confidence in vivid memories they hold, inaccuracies are very prevalent.

With this information, it is important to consider the impact that recalling our memories can have on others and the importance of being aware of the faults in our memory. Consider the example of giving eyewitness testimony. When an eyewitness confidently testifies during a trial about a crime that occurred, juries often believe them and fail to understand that our memories can be inaccurate at times when we do not even realize because confidence does not correlate to accuracy. This is especially true because witnesses often have to recount a memory several times over the course of a few months and when a memory is retrieved over and over again, it can easily become distorted and have small details changed. In a less extreme example, admitting your memory may not be one-hundred percent accurate, especially when recalling small details that are not often retrieved, can help to avoid conflict.

Flashbulb memories are a fascinating aspect of episodic memories that occur when we recall some of the most important and memorable events in our lives. While we feel like we have a perfect picture of these moments ingrained into our memory, that idea is often far from the truth because memory is easily manipulated and often distorted.