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Natural Disasters Individuals

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What affect do natural disasters have on individuals? What is an example of a recent natural disaster?

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Solution Summary

The affects of natural disasters on individuals and examples.

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Why can you remember what you were doing when catastrophes occurred, such as the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, the Challenger disaster, or the assassination of John F. Kennedy?

The main reason that these events are very memorable is because they are what Robinson-Riegler and Robinson-Riegler (2008) call a flashbulb memory. A flashbulb memory is "a detailed, vivid, and confidently held memory for the circumstances surrounding when you first heard some startling bit of news" (Robinson-Riegler & Robinson-Riegler, 2008, p. 321). It is because events like these are very vivid and detailed, and even though they are brief in duration, they are very surprising and produce photograph like qualities to memory. Photos and repeated narrations, moreover, have been shown to increase the retrieval of memories as shown by Robinson-Riegler and Robinson-Riegler (2008).

Other reasons that these memories are more memorable, are because they ...

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