Kulkofsky et al (2011)

• aim


  to investigate if flashbulb memories are found across all cultures
• how many countries studied

  5 - china, germany, turkey, UK, USA
• participants

  sample was made up of 274 adults from five different countries. All participants were identified as "middle class."
• what did the participants have to do

  given 5 minutes to recall as many memories as they could of public events occurring in their lifetime
• when did the events have to have occured

  at least a year ago
• what did researchers do with this information

  create a "memory questionnaire." They were asked five questions about how they learned about the event that mirrored the original questionnaire used by Brown & Kulik (1977)
• what were the 5 questions

  Where were you when you first learned of the event?What time of day was it?How did you learn about it?What were you doing at the time that you learned about it?Whom were you with?
• what other questions were asked

  How nationally or internationally important was the event?How personally important was the event?How surprising was the event?How many times have you talked about the event since it happened?
• Results

  found that in a collectivistic culture like China, personal importance and intensity of emotion played less of a role in predicting FBM, compared with more individualistic cultures that place greater emphasis on an individual's personal involvement and emotional experiences.
• conclusion

  This suggests that culture does influence cognition, due to cultural dimensions such as collectivism and individualism, which influence participant's memory