The Flashbulb Memory of Wenchuan Earthquake of the College Students from Non-Stricken Area：The Relationship between Consistency and Reconstructive Errors
Flashbulb memory (FBM) refers to that people can recall details about the related circumstance when they first learn of the important public or personal events. Flashbulb memory is one of the core issues of the autobiographical memory. Whether the flashbulb memory is more consistent than the ordinary autobiographical memory is still controversial. The relationship between consistency and reconstructive errors is not yet clear, and we know little about the flashbulb memory of the positive events so far. Wenchuan earthquake which happened on May 12, 2008 provided a unique opportunity for us to investigate the flashbulb memory. This study adopted a rigorous coding method. Responses that were essentially the same in the pretest and retest were used as the indicators of the accurate memory, while more specific and inconsistent answers were used as the indicators of the reconstructive errors. We mainly explored the consistency and reconstructive errors of the flashbulb memory, and their mutual relations. Study one included two groups, one recalled the circumstance of hearing the news of Wenchuan earthquake, and one recalled the circumstance of hearing news of the summer vacation period and the circumstance of leaving school of the first year of the college. We mainly investigated the consistency of the flashbulb memory for Wenchuan earthquake. Whether it was better than the consistency of the ordinary memory of daily life events, the relationship between consistency and reconstructive errors were also of our concern. We found that the consistency of the flashbulb memory was significantly better than the ordinary memory, but the reconstructive errors of them were the same，and the reconstructive errors increased with the passage of the time. This study showed that the advantages of the flashbulb memory only reflected in more consistent, but the reconstructive errors were not less. Study two included two groups, one recalled the circumstance of hearing the news of Wenchuan earthquake, and one recalled the circumstance of hearing news of admitted by Fuzhou University. We intended to compare the consistency of flashbulb memory between the positive events (admitted by Fuzhou University) and the negative events (Wenchuan earthquake), as well as the relationship between the consistency and reconstructive errors. It was found that the consistency and reconstructive errors of the positive and negative events were not significantly different, and the correlation of the consistency and the reconstructive errors were not significant. These studies showed that the flashbulb memories of the positive and negative events were similar, and were not immune from reconstruction, and the dissociation between consistency and reconstructive errors is found.
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