I don't know about the literature, but I can claim something like this for myself.
I have a "flashbulb" memory for the Challenger disaster that has (at least) one serious error in it: I recall it occurring one year earlier than the historical event. This event had become merged with a personal flashbulb memory for my daughter's first steps. Witnessing the explosion (via television) and my daughter's first steps both occurred in my parent's home, but on separate visits in January on adjacent years. When I first saw the Challenger photo in an intro psychology text and was about to talk about my blended personal event/public event flashbulb memory, I was sure the author had made a typo for the date of the Challenger event, since I recalled it as occurring the same year that my daughter started to walk. The two events are still merged for me, although they now include my knowledge that the merger is a mistake - and an undated discovery of the fallibility of my own flashbulb memory. I think the literature on the mutability of memories in general combined with the models postulating a separation of episodic and semantic memory are consistent with these kinds of memory experiences. Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director, Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor, Psychology University of West Florida Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751 Phone: (850) 857-6355 or 473-7435 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/ Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm -----Original Message----- From: Don Allen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 3:07 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Double memory Hi All- We have just been discussing false/recovered memories in our Intro class. A student mentioned that she currently has two memories of a past event. One is verifiably true and the other is false, however she says that both memories exist simultaneously and that both "feel" true even though she logically knows that one of them is false. This was a new one for me. Does anyone know of references in the literature that speak to this phenomenon? Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA, -Don. -- Don Allen Department of Psychology Langara College Vancouver, B.C., Canada V5Y 2Z6 604-323-5871 --- ---
