> -----Original Message----- > From: Stephen Black [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 2:05 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences > Subject: Re: Brooklyn Dodgers & flashbulb memory > > On Fri, 12 Apr 2002 Annette Taylor wrote: > > > Check Ulrich Neisser's book: Memory Observed. In it he reprints the original > > Brown & Kulik paper along with some other ANECDOTAL evidence that perhaps > some > > of these are false. > > I can't resist a quick web search of my own whenever a question > like this comes up, and I think I may have gotten lucky. It does > involve Neisser, but apparently indirectly. If this is the > anecdote, it suggests a whole lotta reconstruction goin' on to > arrive at Charles' version. But the source still isn't fully > identified. > > My source says: > > Neisser's Critique > > Neisser's critique of Brown and Kulik's hypothesis revolves > around four issues...For example, in his own account of the > attack on Pearl Harbor, Neisser reported that he was listening to > a baseball game on the radio. This could not be true, however, > because there are no baseball games in December! Interestingly, > Thompson and Cowan discovered serendipitously in an interview > with Red Barber that the two teams playing in the football game > that Neisser had been listening to were the Giants and the > Dodgers. Having just lectured on memory, I think this clearly illustrates how creative our memory is. I think it also shows that flash bulb memories make a big impression on us, the details can get just as muddle as other memories. Obviously Neisser at one time probably remembered accurately that he was listening to the Dogers/Giants football game but since the Dodgers football organization has long since folded (and the baseball Dodgers have left for the other coast), replaying the memory seems to put the Boys in Blue back in Brooklyn and have them playing their cross town rivals. If the flash bulb memory have been more accurate, he might have remembered the score or the last play before the break in the broadcast. I know (at least I think I do) that I was listening to NPR do a story on the social security debate just before they broke in with mention of the second plane hitting the WTC. Tapes or transcripts will reveal if that was actually the last story they aired or is that just how I remembered it and rehearsed. After all I was a little under the weather that morning and struggling to go in late to work. The value of flash bulb memories is their emotional impact not their accuracy. but that's just how I remember it...or is it? -- Herb Coleman IT Manager, Rio Grande Campus Adjunct Psychology Professor Austin Community College [EMAIL PROTECTED] 512-223-3076 ****************************************** * "I wish none of this had happened." * * * * "So do all who live to see such times. * * But that is not for them to decide. * * All we have to decide is what to do * * with the time that is given to us. * * There are other forces at work in this * * world,..., besides the will of evil." * ****************************************** A conversation between Frodo and Gandalf from the motion picture "The Fellowship of the Ring" --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
