Brown & Kulik (1977)

• Overview - examined the nature and quality of flashbulb memories
• Participants - 40 caucasian americans and 40 african americans from Harvard university with a wide age range (20-60)
• Procedure

  • Participants answered questionnaires about their memories (where, who, what were they doing) when they learned about the death of eight famous people, including John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
  • They were also to recall an incident from their own lives that were shocking or sudden, like the death of a family member.
• Results

  • The strongest flashbulb memories were about the assassination of John F. Kennedy with 39/40 caucasians and all 40/40 of african americans reporting it as a strong FBM.
  • Around 70/80 participants reported FBM as linked to personal shock.
  • Race was a factor. More AAs had FBMs with important black figures and more CAs had FBMs for white figures.
• Demonstrates that FBMs are vivid memories that are easily recalled a result of an event that evokes powerful emotional responses. They can however vary in strength according to the significance of the event to the person.