Autobiographical and flashbulb memories across the lifespan

Abstract

The present study explored how age at event influences recollection of autobiographical and flashbulb memories. More specifically, the present study aimed primarily to understand several components of the lifespan distribution of memories, such as childhood amnesia and reminiscence bump by directly comparing these with both free recall and probed flashbulb memories across the lifespan. In addition, similarities and the phenomenological and other retrieval characteristics associated with both of these types of memories were investigated. An additional aim was to construct an index of flashbulb memory events for Turkish population. Participants, whose ages ranged from 50 to 93, were asked to provide memories in response to the cue words in the first section, to free recall personal context details of a private or public news item in the second section, and to recall personal context details for each of the 9 probe events provided by the experimenter in the third section. After the events were reported participants were asked to rate their memories on several phenomenological quality scales, which include vividness, significance, vantage point judgments, remember/know judgments, etc. Subsequently, the participants dated each of their memories. Results revealed that both types of memories produced distributions with childhood amnesia, reminiscence bump, and recency components with minor differences. Autobiographical memories peaked at 10-19 age period, whereas free recall and probed flashbulb memories peaked at 20-29 age decade. Memories also differed in term of the earliest age of memory. Phenomenological quality ratings seemed to follow the same pattern. Flashbulb memories were rated as higher in vividness and significance of the events than autobiographical memories.