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Affect and Accuracy in Recall: Studies of 'Flashbulb' Memories. Edited by E. Winograd & U. Neisser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1992. Pp. ix+315. Cased, 30.00.
Human Memory: Paradigms and Paradoxes. By R. L. Greene. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 1992. Pp. xi+225. Cased, 39.95.
What do the resignation of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the death of Olof Palme in Stockholm, and the Challenger space-shuttle disaster have in common? The answer, as all students of autobiographical memory will know, is that they have been the subject of investigations into `flashbulb memories'. In 1977, Brown and Kulik rekindled interest in this topic by asking people to describe the circumstances in which they had learned of the death of President Kennedy. Most of those who were approached confidently reported vivid recollections of contextual details such as where they were, whom they were with and how they had learned the news. So vivid are people's reported memories for such details that, following Brown and Kulik, it has commonly been assumed that some special memory processes are brought into play by emotive and significant events.
Affect and Accuracy in Recall follows Remembering Reconsidered (also edited by Ulric Neisser and Eugene Winograd) in the Emory Symposia in Cognition series, but in contrast to the other volumes this latest one deals with a single problem and largely with a single research paradigm. The relationship between affect and memory is considered by focusing on the Challenger disaster in 1986, but, if anyone should doubt that such a specific topic could remain interesting throughout 300 or so pages, they can be reassured: the contributions are well organized and, rather as in a good detective novel, there is the nagging question, `Will the special mechanism be revealed?'
Part of the appeal for some readers will perhaps arise from the vividness of their own flashbulb memories or the appealing investigation of young children who were watching the shuttle launch because a teacher was on board, and who had studied in class to prepare for...