I.    Purpose: To examine the characteristics of flashbulb memories (a vivid memory of an historical event) and compare them to other types of long-term memories.

II.   Assignment: Have six different people write down on separate pieces of paper a) a flashbulb memory for a significant historical event from their teenage years or later and b) some other type of long-term memory that you have chosen (e.g., their earliest memory). For each memory, have your participants take as much time as they need and write down as much detail as possible. You might suggest to them to try to remember what they were wearing, what they said, who else was present, etc. You should have two written descriptions for each person.

Possible events which may have produced flashbulb memories include the Challenger explosion, Princess Diana's death, JFK Jr.’s missing plane, or the Columbine massacre. It is possible that a given event may not have produced a flashbulb memory for all participants and this in itself may be of interest to you.  For the flashbulb memory, you might want to have everyone recall the same specific, historical event or you might want to have them choose an event from a list of historical events. In either case, you should choose the event or events, making sure that the event has historical significance.

Examine the descriptions of people’s flashbulb memories and other long-term memories. Your task is to use these descriptions to generate at least two hypotheses about your data. A couple of simple hypotheses are 1) the number of words in the flashbulb memory is less than/equal to/more than (you would choose one based on some specific idea about memory) the number of words in the other memory, or 2) the number of words in the flashbulb memory is correlated with the number of words in the other long-term memory (that is, do people who say a lot in their flashbulb memory also say a lot in their other long-term memory)? You may use either or both of these hypotheses, but more credit will be given for hypotheses that use original variables or use these same variables in interesting ways, especially those that ask questions relevant to test Brown and Kulik’s or Neisser’s hypotheses. In creating and testing your hypotheses, it will be necessary use data from both descriptions from every individual.

III.    Lab report: Your lab report will contain 4 parts. The hypothesis, the method, the results, and the discussion. All lab reports should be type-written, double-spaced and spell-checked.

For the hypothesis section - state your two hypotheses separately. You should indicate how you expect the flashbulb memories to differ or correlate with the other long term memory and the reasons why. Provide some rationale for your hypotheses.

For the method - in one to two paragraphs, briefly describe participant characteristics, the materials used, and the basic procedure (what the participants went through). Use the past tense.

For the results - Look for similarities and differences in what and how people recalled the information. You should summarize the data relevant to each hypothesis by using scatterplots (for correlations) or bar charts (for differences) as relevant. Your graphs should be on separate pages. In your write up, keep your hypotheses separate as you describe what your graphs showed and whether the data tend to support each hypothesis. No statistical analyses are needed for this. Provide means for your dependent variables. In addition, give specific examples from the memory descriptions to help illustrate the ideas.

For the discussion — Consult Chapter 6. In what ways do your results support what Brown and Kulik say? What about what Neisser says? In what ways do your results bring up new ideas or interpretations about flashbulb memories?

Choose two models of memory from those that are described in Chapters 5, 6 and/or 7 (e.g., the memory store model, the levels of processing model, Tulving's episodic/semantic memory model, the connectionist model) and use them to explain the formation and possible alteration of flashbulb memories. Based on your data, which one seems to give the better account as to how flashbulb memories are formed and possibly altered? Why?

Based on what you've learned about long term memory in general and flashbulb memories in particular, how accurate do you think people's memories are? Why? In your opinion, are flashbulb memories special or are they like other types of long term memories? Why? What other evidence might help better test the similarities or differences between the different types of long term memories? Finally, how can you use what you learned about long term memory from this lab in your own life?

Please enclose the written descriptions in an Appendix.

IV.    Grading

Grades will be based on attention to the basic mechanics of writing, the clarity of presentation, synthesis with class material, and the depth and originality of thinking.

DUE DATE: Wednesday, November 15/Thursday, November 16