Cheese!

Spring Breaaaaak! I bet everyone's excited to spend some great time sleeping in as long as possible--at least, I am. But before we can all head home for a week, I've got one more blog post to publish. This week, we're talking all about memories and learning. For this blog, though, we'll be focusing on Episodic memory: Flashbulb Memories. 


In life, there's quite a few different types of memories: Long-term memories, short-term memories, and episodic memories. This week, we're focusing on episodic memories, memories that someone has of a sequence of events in which they participated in.

Photo courtesy of PsycholoGenie

Think of your first and last days of high school, your first day at a new job, and maybe your wedding day. These are memories that we actively participated in, so we usually remember them pretty well. I can definitely think of my last day of high school. We had a carnival where I played kickball for the last time with a bunch of friends. I slid to the base to make it there and skinned up my knee so bad that my forensics teacher had to clean it up for me (Figures that he would be good at cleaning up blood--Thanks Mr. Lilley!). I remember pretty much every detail of this day, as I played a huge part in it, and it played a huge part in my life.

But do you have a memory that is so vivid in your head that you could imagine what that day smelled like, what you could hear in the background, and maybe even what you tasted? Then you have a flashbulb memory. Flashbulb memories are a special kind of episodic memory; they're extremely vivid and pretty much every detail of the memory can be recalled at will. Our book defines them as, "acute, vivid memory for the circumstances surrounding a surprising or novel event." You might hear a lot of people talking about September 11th as an flashbulb memory. Everyone knows exactly where they were or what they were doing when they heard the news of the twin towers.

These moments in our lives shocked us so much that we remember every single thing about the moment in time. Whenever I think about flashbulb memories, I'm always reminded of the time I came home from vacation to find that my 5-year old Yorkie-mix had suffered an untimely accident while we were away. I remember the warm summer air and the feeling of grass on my feet as we buried her. I could hear the faint sounds of kids playing at a park close to my home. I remember the sounds that my dad made as he cried for the first time in front of me. Her passing came as such a shock for us, as she was so young and it happened hours before we got back. No one was expecting it. It's a memory that I'll never forget.

Flashbulb memories, whether they're good or bad, will pretty much always be in the back of your mind. They're hard to forget, as they're so surprising, and every time you remember them, it's like you're back in that time, holding a small body of something you loved more than anything.