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Michael Jackson, Bin Laden and I: Functions of positive and negative, public and private flashbulb memories

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09658211.2014.907428

1464-0686

Burcu Demiray, Alexandra M. Freund,

Aging and Gerontology Research

AbstractThis study examined the perceived psychosocial functions of flashbulb memories: It compared positive and negative public flashbulb memories (positive: Bin Laden's death, negative: Michael Jackson's death) with private ones (positive: pregnancy, negative: death of a loved one). A sample of n = 389 young and n = 176 middle-aged adults answered canonical category questions used to identify flashbulb memories and rated the personal significance, the psychological temporal distance, and the functions of each memory (i.e., self-continuity, social-boding, directive functions). Hierarchical regressions showed that, in general, private memories were rated more functional than public memories. Positive and negative private memories were comparable in self-continuity and directionality, but the positive private memory more strongly served social functions. In line with the positivity bias in autobiographical memory, positive flashbulb memories felt psychologically closer than negative ones. Finally, middle-aged adults rated their memories as less functional regarding self-continuity and social-bonding than young adults. Results are discussed regarding the tripartite model of autobiographical memory functions.Keywords: Flashbulb memoryPrivate flashbulb memoriesPositive flashbulb memoriesFunctionsAge effects We would like to thank Amanda Gesselman, Martin Pletscher, Oliver Lohse and Isabel Berwian for their assistance in data collection and coding.We would like to thank Amanda Gesselman, Martin Pletscher, Oliver Lohse and Isabel Berwian for their assistance in data collection and coding.Notes1 The gender distribution of the current sample is balanced, which is an advantage over previous research that indicates an abundance of female participants in MTurk studies (e.g., Buhrmester, Kwang, & Gosling, Citation2011), as well as standard internet studies (Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, Citation2004). The current age distribution is similar to previous American MTurk samples (e.g., mean age = 36.0 in Paolacci, Chandler, & Ipeirotis, 2010; mean age = 32.8 in Buhrmester, et al., Citation2011). The education level of the current sample is high (56% with a degree higher than high school), in line with previous research showing that American MTurk workers' education level is higher than the general US population (Paolacci et al., Citation2010). The income distribution is also consistent with previous research showing that 67% of the US-based MTurk workers earn below $60K per year, which is slightly lower than the general US population, but it tends to be closer than college samples to the general population (Paolacci et al., Citation2010).2 There were four survey conditions with four different order of memories: (1) Michael Jackson, Osama bin Laden, bad news, good news, (2) Osama bin Laden, good news, Michael Jackson, bad news, (3) good news, bad news, Osama bin Laden, Michael Jackson and (4) bad news, Michael Jackson, good news, Osama bin Laden (for the formula, see www.statpages.org/latinsq.html).3 Recent research shows that cut-off points can be set on canonical category scores (i.e., recall score) that can distinguish people who form flashbulb memories from those who do not (Curci & Lanciano, Citation2009; Lanciano & Curci, Citation2012). This work aims to conceptualise flashbulb memories as a special cluster of memories, categorically different from autobiographical memories. This was not one of our research aims; therefore, we have not conducted such a taxometric investigation of flashbulb memories. We considered memories with a recall score of 0 as non-flashbulb memories, and the rest as flashbulb memories with varying degrees of canonical categories.4 These regression analyses were replicated with the order of memories added as a second control variable. Adding order as a control variable resulted in the same findings for all memory functions.5 These regression analyses were replicated twice: One with the comparison of private versus public memories, and one with the comparison of positive versus negative memories. These regressions revealed no significant interactions between the predictors (i.e., memory significance, recall score, age group) and the four memory types. Therefore, in our final 12 regressions (Tables 4 and 5), interactions with memory types were not included (e.g., bad news × age group).6 We preferred hierarchical regressions in order to test all of our study aims together in one analysis. In fact, these relations could also be tested using SEM, for example, separately for the four memory types. However, this would allow us to examine differences between the four memory types in terms of the relations between recall, personal significance and functions of memories (not differences between memory types in terms of functions themselves, which is the main study aim). Therefore, we use the current analytical approach, which is more adequate to address the specific aims of this study.