Long-term memory for the terrorist attack of September 11: flashbulb memories, event memories, and the factors that influence their retention.

Full Abstract

More than 3,000 individuals from 7 U.S. cities reported on their memories of learning of the terrorist attacks of September 11, as well as details about the attack, 1 week, 11 months, and/or 35 months after the assault. Some studies of flashbulb memories examining long-term retention show slowing in the rate of forgetting after a year, whereas others demonstrate accelerated forgetting. This article indicates that (a) the rate of forgetting for flashbulb memories and event memory (memory for details about the event itself) slows after a year, (b) the strong emotional reactions elicited by flashbulb events are remembered poorly, worse than nonemotional features such as where and from whom one learned of the attack, and (c) the content of flashbulb and event memories stabilizes after a year. The results are discussed in terms of community memory practices. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: Hirst, William (W); Phelps, Elizabeth A (EA); Buckner, Randy L (RL); Budson, Andrew E (AE); Cuc, Alexandru (A); Gabrieli, John D E (JD); Johnson, Marcia K (MK); Lustig, Cindy (C); Lyle, Keith B (KB); Mather, Mara (M); Meksin, Robert (R); Mitchell, Karen J (KJ); Ochsner, Kevin N (KN); Schacter, Daniel L (DL); Simons, Jon S (JS); Vaidya, Chandan J (CJ);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, New School for Social Research, New York, NY 10011, USA. hirst(-atsign-)newschool.edu

Grants: R01-MH0066972 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. General (J Exp Psychol Gen), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-May; vol 138 (issue 2) : pp 161-76

Dates: Created 2009/04/28; Completed 2009/06/26;

PMID: 19397377, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/26/2009, IMS Date: 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.