208 • CHAPTER 8 Everyday Memory and Memory Errors
Memory for “Exceptional” Events
It is clear that some events in a person’s life are more likely to be remembered than
others. So far we have been asking when these events occur, but we can also ask what
kinds of events are most likely to be remembered. A characteristic of most memorable
events is that they are signifi cant and important to the person and, in many cases,
are associated with emotions. For example, studies of what students remember from
their freshman year of college have found that many of the events that stand out were
associated with strong emotions (Pillemer, 1998; Pillemer et al., 1996; Talarico, 2009).MEMORY AND EMOTION
Emotions are often associated with events that are more easily remembered. Personal
events, such as beginning or ending relationships, or events experienced by many
people simultaneously, like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, seem to be
remembered more easily and vividly than less emotionally charged
events. This feeling that emotionally charged events are easier to
remember has been confi rmed by laboratory research. For example,
when Kevin LaBar and Elizabeth Phelps (1998) tested participants’
ability to recall arousing words (for example, profanity and
sexually explicit words) and neutral words (such as street and
store) immediately after they were presented, they observed better
memory for the arousing words (● Figure 8.5a). Florin Dolcos and
coworkers (2005) tested participants’ ability to recognize emotional
and neutral pictures 1 year after they were initially presented and
observed better memory for the emotional pictures (Figure 8.5b).
When we look at what is happening physiologically, one struc-
ture stands out—the amygdala (see Figure 7.17). The importance
of the amygdala has been demonstrated in a number of ways. For
example, in the experiment by Dolcos and coworkers described
above, fMRI brain scans, measured as people were remembering,
revealed that amygdala activity was higher for the emotional words
(also see Cahill et al., 1996; Hamann et al., 1999).
The link between emotions and the amygdala has also been
demonstrated by testing a patient, B.P., who had suffered damage
to his amygdala. When participants without
brain damage viewed a slide show about a
boy and his mother in which the boy is injured
halfway through the story, these participants
had enhanced memory for the emotional part
of the story (when the boy is injured). B.P.’s
memory was the same as that of the non-brain-
damaged participants for the fi rst part of the
story, but it was not enhanced for the emotional
part (Cahill et al., 1995). It appears, therefore,
that emotions may trigger mechanisms in the
amygdala that help us remember events that
are associated with the emotions.FLASHBULB MEMORIES
What about special, highly memorable, or
signifi cant events? You may have memories
of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001
(● Figure 8.6). Do you remember when you10
02030405060Emotional Neutral(a)01020Emotional Neutral(b)Percent words recalled
Percent pictures recognized●FIGURE 8.5 (a) Percent of emotional and neutral
words recalled immediately after reading a list of words
(based on data from LaBar & Phelps, 1998, Fig. 2, p. 490).
(b) Percent of emotional and neutral pictures recognized
1 year after viewing the pictures (adapted from Dolcos et
al., 2005, Fig. 1, p. 2628).●FIGURE 8.6 Posters like this one are just one of the many reminders of the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.Bruce GoldsteinCopyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.