HOT ON THE TRAIL OF FLASHBULB MEMORY

Discusses research on the degradation of memory over a short period of time. Concept of memory as a constructive process; Results of a survey conducted by Kathy Pezdek, psychology professor at Claremont Graduate University in California after the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks.

By Kaja Perina, published on March 01, 2002

Paradigms

On September 11, 2021, will you remember where you were 20 years earlier or recall that it was a Tuesday? Millions of Americans remember that morning as a "flashbulb memory," the vivid and total recall of a stressful, emotional and often historic event. But psychologists are increasingly certain that such memories, first defined in the 1970s, do, in fact, degrade over a short period of time. September 11 may provide the data to conclusively dismiss flashbulb memory, just as the concept infiltrates public consciousness.

Dozens of researchers independently initiated flashbulb studies within days of the attack, posing the "Where were you?" question that everyone was asking one another already. Their subjects will be reassessed between nine months and three years hence, depending on the study.

Kathy Pezdek, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University in California, didn't have to wait for a follow-up survey to detect significant mnemonic fissures in her subjects. Pezdek surveyed 690 people seven weeks after September 11. Their average estimation of elapsed time between the first plane crash and the collapse of both towers was 62 minutes, when, in fact, the disaster took almost two hours to unfold. New Yorkers were the most accurate respondents; nonetheless, three-fourths recalled seeing the first plane hit the tower in video footage aired September 11th. This footage was not shown until the next day.

"Already, memory telescopes in time" says Pezdek. "This was the most consequential event in many people's lifetime. That they're forgetting just seven weeks later shows that memory is a constructive process. We remember the construction, not the events that go into the construction." Pezdek will present her findings at the Tsukuba International Conference on Memory in March and will edit a section devoted to 9/11 studies in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Not all 9/11 research began after the attacks. While the National Institute of Mental Health "started hearing from investigators on the afternoon of the 11th" according to head of traumatic research Farris Tuma, many longitudinal studies were already in place. Perhaps the oddest is the Global Consciousness Project, an attempt to gauge unified patterns when humanity focuses on a single event. Machines in 38 cities perform digital "coin tosses" at the rate of 200 per second. The results are usually 50:50, but last September the data skewed markedly in one direction. Statistical anomalies first appeared three hours before the attacks, peeked at 9:10 a.m. EST and continued for three days. The odds of this occurring are less than one in 1,000, according to Roger Nelson, director of the Princeton, New Jersey--based project, which is not affiliated with Princeton University.

Nelson hesitates to attribute these results to a unified consciousness, though the data is by far the greatest deviation from the norm in the project's three-year history.

71 percentage of Americans who felt depressed in the week after 9/11

12 percentage increase in nationwide admissions to substance abuse treatment centers

813 percentage increase in CNN viewers for week of September 11, 2001

21 percentage decrease in number of Americans fearing terrorist attacks, from Oct. to Dec. 2001

People who watched more than 12 hours of television per day were 3.6 times more likely to develop PTSD after 9/11 than people who watched less than four hours.

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