Comparing how memories are recalled well after the events and how they were called immediately after. A technique often used to study flashbulb memories.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Memory of highly shocking and emotionally charged events. It is not necessarily that you were there when the event happened, but often how you heard about the event. A recent, notable and tragic example is people's recalling of first hearing about the 9/11 attacks.

Flashbulb memory

- Free recall
- Cued recall
- Change detection
- Digit span
- Repeated recall

Types of recall

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Repeated recall

We remember significant events better not because of any special process/mechanism, but just because they are rehearsed more often.

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis

a subject is asked to recall a stimulus (with no cues).

Free recall

a subject is given retrieval cues to aid in recall.

Cued recall

A measure of short-term memory. It is the number of digits someone can remember

digit span

A measure of short-term memory that measures how much information someone can retain from a briefly displayed stimuli (often simpler stimuli than other methods). Participants are asked whether a change occurred after a brief delay from the original stimuli.

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