500
With reference to a study, state the flaw of the Flashbulb Theory by Barlett
In Jennifer Talrico and David Rubin's study, they gave 52 volunteers a questionnaire with ratings by a 7-point scale, to question them about their memorization right after the tragedy of the Terrorist attack of the Twin Towers on September 11th 2001. The student volunteers were also required to fill in a questionnaire about their memory of an ordinary event from the proceeding few days.The total number of participants was then split into 3 group. They had to return for a follow-up questionnaire session asking the same questions about their memories about the ordinary event and the flashbulb memory after 3 different time slots elapsed- 7 days, 42 days and 224 days
Results:
Participants believed their memories of September 11th to be more accurate but te number of details remembered about September 11 compared to the ordinary event, was statistically indistinguishable. As a result, the flaw in flashbulb theory is that participants believed that flashbulb memories are more accurate than ordinary memories, but when accuracy of memories is checked, it turns out flashbulb memories may be no different than ordinary memories.