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Flashbulb memories in social groups : a comparative test-retest study of the memory of French President Mitterrand's death in a French and a Belgian group

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Curci, Antonietta [University of Bari, Italy] Luminet, Olivier [UCL] Finkenauer, Catrin [Utrecht University, The Netherlands] Gisle, Lydia [UCL]

Flashbulb memories are vivid and long-lasting memories for the reception context of an important public event (Brown & Kulik, 1977). They are assumed to be triggered by emotional factors (i.e., intensity of emotional feeling, appraisal of the original event) and by social factors (i.e., social sharing of the news, following media debate about the event). The present study investigated the memory for the death of the former President of France F. Mitterrand in two social groups, i.e., French and Belgian people. This study tests whether the flashbulb memory attributes, the memory for the original event, and the impact of the emotional and social determinants of flashbulb memory differed across groups. The results indicated that the flashbulb memory for Mitterrand's death is affected by group provenance, as French people showed higher levels of recall for the flashbulb memory attributes and their determinants than Belgian people. Time impaired recollections in both groups, so that flashbulb memories appear prone to decay and share the same destiny as ordinary memories. The theoretical construct of concern - as the most basic antecedent of emotional experiences and its related appraisal (Frijda, 1994) - is discussed in order to explain the differences in memory of the two social groups.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Article de recherche
Access type Accès restreint
Publication date 2001
Language Anglais
Journal information "Memory" - Vol. 9, no.2, p. 81-101 (2001)
Peer reviewed yes
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd. ((United Kingdom) Abingdon)
issn 0965-8211
e-issn 1464-0686
Publication status Publié
Affiliation UCL - PSP/PSP - Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation
Links
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Bibliographic reference Curci, Antonietta ; Luminet, Olivier ; Finkenauer, Catrin ; Gisle, Lydia. Flashbulb memories in social groups : a comparative test-retest study of the memory of French President Mitterrand's death in a French and a Belgian group. In: Memory, Vol. 9, no.2, p. 81-101 (2001)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/137092