Critically consider the role of emotional factors in forgetting Essay Example

events from their lives and found strong evidence for mood congruence. While there is little conclusive evidence for mood dependence, Ucros (1989) provided some evidence of a relationship. Loftus's (1979) "weapon focus" study demonstrated that fear and anxiety caused by a weapon can narrow attention and result in accurate recall of central details but diminish accurate recall of peripheral details. This suggests that emotion not only affects what is seen but also changes what information from the world around us is processed, altering what we remember. Freud (1915-18) held a different view, proposing that certain memories become inaccessible due to repression.

Freud proposed that individuals use repression as a defense mechanism to keep troubling thoughts or ideas from their conscious minds. This process can have a significant impact on behavior, even though the repressed memories are not accessible. Freud based this theory on his work with patients suffering from neurotic disorders and used case studies to illustrate it. Although researchers have tried to demonstrate repression in laboratory experiments, they have encountered difficulties.

Levinger and Clark carried out a study in 1961. They asked their participants to produce related words for a set of presented words, which included emotionally neutral terms like "tree" and "window," as well as emotionally arousing ones (missing text). The task was to generate associated words for all the given terms.

During a study involving word associations with emotional content (such as "angry" and "quarrel"), participants were more likely to remember the neutral associations rather than the emotional ones. This finding initially suggested that anxiety-provoking responses had been repressed, supporting the concept of repression. However, subsequent studies, such as Bradley and Baddeley's (1990) experiment, which

included testing participants after a time delay, have provided a more complex understanding of this phenomenon.

Levinger and Clark discovered that recall of emotional associations was poor immediately after testing. However, after a delay of 28 days, emotional associations were significantly better remembered than neutral ones. Clinical evidence widely accepts that repression is crucial in various types of psychogenic amnesia, including fugue and multiple personality disorder caused by traumatic experiences. Event-specific amnesia is a common form of psychogenic amnesia, which is a loss of memory for a specific period, such as violent criminals who cannot recall their crime.

Despite ruling out malingering and intoxication as causes, a significant proportion of offenders still appear to have repressed memories of their crimes (Parkin, 1993). The use of the term 'repression' does not necessarily align with a Freudian interpretation, but rather acknowledges that memory can make certain aspects of experiences inaccessible as a coping mechanism for distressing events.

The concept of how memory works is still unclear, as described by Parkin (1993). Repression can result in the recovery of memories of child sexual abuse (CSA) during therapy, but it remains uncertain whether these recovered memories (RMs) are authentic or false memories (FMs) that therapists have planted. Loftus (in Jaroff, 1993) believes in repression if it is the conscious avoidance of unpleasant experiences, but not if it involves blocking out a continuous series of traumas without awareness.

There is no evidence to support the idea of memories disappearing and then reappearing years later in a trustworthy form. This notion contradicts our understanding of memory.

Loftus (1997) stated that combining real memories with suggestions from others can create false memories, leading to source

confusion. The Courage to Heal (Bass; Davis, 1993) increased reports of repressed memories (RM) as it suggested that almost all psychological problems result from childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and can be resolved by recovering repressed memories of the abuse. This book was a catalyst for the RM movement in psychotherapy, with many therapists adopting memory work techniques such as hypnosis under the erroneous belief that it can unlock forgotten memories (Parkin 2000).

According to Mazzom et al (1999), it is simple to create false memories (FMs). The study involved selecting participants who previously filled out a life events inventory (LEI) and reported no experience of specific important childhood events. The experimental group received information concerning their dream content in a 30-minute session that suggested they had been bullied or lost before they reached three years of age, whereas controls received no such suggestions. In addition, the attitudes towards dream interpretation were probed. The experiment showed that false memories could be easily created through suggestive means.

After two weeks, a subsequent LEI was conducted by all participants who were then fully debriefed. A final subgroup of dream participants filled out a questionnaire that recorded their post-experimental beliefs regarding their memories. The average LEI alteration indicated that 50% of the experimental group was convinced that the crucial event had really transpired. A few even provided explicit, detailed recollections of the incident and rejected any connection between the dream and childhood event sessions. It was discovered that a staunch prior belief in dream interpretation was linked to greater confidence in the target event.

The controls did not experience any changes. Although FMs can be created, it does raise concerns about the

reliability of RMs in relation to CSA, particularly when discovered during psychotherapy, as psychologists may accidentally create FMs without being aware. The broader concept of memory systems blocking certain forms of memory should be taken seriously. Traumatic experiences can undoubtedly cause memory disturbances, but Freud's explanation may not be the most suitable. Flashbulb memory refers to vivid and long-lasting memories of significant and dramatic events.

The term "flashbulb memories" was coined by Brown and Kulik (1977). They observed that many people had the ability to vividly recall their activities at the time of President Kennedy's assassination. Similar examples of this phenomenon include the millions of individuals who remember what they were doing when they learned of Diana's death. It seems as though a "flash photograph" was captured at the moment of the event, with every detail imprinted in memory. One eyewitness stated that their memory of the Oklahoma bombing was "engraved on their memory" (Cahill & McGaugh, 1998). McCloskey, Wible, and Cohen (1988) even tested the reliability of flashbulb memories.

McCloskey et al. conducted interviews with individuals shortly after the space shuttle Challenger exploded, and then followed up with the same individuals nine months later. Their research discovered that subjects did forget details about the event, indicating that flashbulb memories may be susceptible to forgetting just like any other memory. However, Conway et al. (1994) expressed a contrasting view, stating that the Challenger explosion was not a prime example of a flashbulb memory because it did not possess significant consequences impacting the lives of those interviewed, which is an essential criterion for such type of memory.

Conway et al. discovered that Margaret Thatcher's resignation, an unprecedented and

significant event for many UK citizens, produced a flashbulb memory. After 11 months, a remarkable 86% of surveyed UK participants still had their flashbulb memories intact, while only 29% of surveyed individuals from other nations retained such vivid recollections. These findings suggest that events that hold significant personal meaning are more likely to be remembered vividly.

According to this study, flashbulb memory appears to be a unique function of memory as it can be recalled with such accuracy even 11 months after the event, requiring passage into LTM. However, repetition, which is necessary for LTM according to the multi-store model, does not occur in this case. The impact of emotion on forgetting is not significant, and the Freudian repression theory cannot be reproduced in the laboratory and therefore lacks practical value. State dependent forgetting/retrieval, on the other hand, suggests that information retrieval is easier when one's emotional state is the same as during initial storage, such as recalling happy memories when feeling happy.

According to research, flashbulb memory is a distinct memory process that allows us to remember emotional and significant events with precision over an extended period.