Extraordinary Memories for Exceptional Events

233 Pages·2012·1.559 MB·English

by  Stephen R. Schmidt

Extraordinary Memories
for Exceptional Events
ESSAYS IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
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Extraordinary Memories
for Exceptional Events
StEphEn R. SchMidt
Psychology Press
New York London
Psychology Press Psychology Press
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
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Version Date: 20111122
International Standard Book Number: 978-1-84872-915-5 (Hardback)
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Schmidt, Stephen R.
Extraordinary memories for exceptional events / Stephen R. Schmidt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84872-915-5 (alk. paper)
1. Memory. I. Title.
BF370.S36 2012
153.1’3--dc22 2011044139
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To Connie, the love of my life
v

CONTENTS
Preface ix
About the Author xiii
Chapter 1 What Are Extraordinary Memories and Exceptional
Events? 1
Chapter 2 Metaphors and Foundations 21
Chapter 3 Flashbulb Memories 45
Chapter 4 Emotional Significance: Laboratory Studies 67
Chapter 5 Secondary Distinctiveness: Memory for the Bizarre
and Unusual 99
Chapter 6 Primary Distinctiveness: Escape From Monotony 133
Chapter 7 Summary and Conclusions: What Supports
Outstanding Memories? 157
References 179
Author Index 199
Subject Index 207
vii

PREFACE
I trace the origins of this book to January 28, 1986. At 11:38 a.m. EST the
Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 72 seconds into its flight. During
my lunch break that day, I went to pick up my eldest daughter, Theresa,
from Montessori School. I vividly remember the scene in the school lobby
as one of Theresa’s former babysitters told me about the accident. That
afternoon, I sat down with one of my colleagues, Neil Bohannon, and
together we designed an investigation to test several theories of flashbulb
memories (see Bohannon, 1988). We were interested in why people some-
times remember where they were and what they were doing when they
hear the news of exceptional events like the space shuttle disaster. I had
just completed a research project investigating the effects of distinctive-
ness on memory (Schmidt, 1986). I found that students remembered the
name of an animal when it was embedded in a list of musical instruments
better than when the animal name appeared in an all-animal list. Were
flashbulb memories simply extreme examples of this effect of distinctive-
ness? I did not think so (see Schmidt & Bohannon, 1988). Distinctiveness
may provide a partial explanation of flashbulb memories, but it could not
be the whole story. From that day in January, I became interested in the
multiple processes that contribute to extraordinary memories for real-life
exceptional events.
Most people would agree that two factors contribute to “special” mem-
ories: strong emotions and distinctiveness. However, researchers often
fail to separately consider how emotion and distinctiveness contribute
to memory performance. Much of my research has been directed toward
understanding what emotion and distinctiveness are, and how each influ-
ences memory performance (for example, Schmidt 1991, 2006, 2007). This
research has led me to study many different kinds memory and to adopt
a variety of methodologies. Sometimes while looking for the effects of
emotion on memory, I found the effects of distinctiveness (Schmidt, 1994).
Sometimes I was looking for the effects of distinctiveness and I found the
effects of emotion (Schmidt & Saari, 2007). I came to realize that in labo-
ratory investigations, as in the real world, emotion and distinctiveness
ix