In response to the recent disaster in Japan, Psychology professor Christie Chung is conducting a study about memories of the event. Psychology students Ziyong Lin, Laura Samuelsson, and Amelia True assisted Chung of This study reflects other studies that Chung has done, for example she studied the effects of the San Bruno fire on people’s memories. The San Bruno study is still in progress, and so far has had no conclusive results.
The study concerns itself with the idea of the “flashbulb memory”, which is when someone remembers the exact moment when they first found out about an event. This is something that usually occurs with major disasters, but Chung is also seeing if there is a difference in the memories between man-made disasters, such as the San Bruno fire, and natural disasters such as the recent disaster in Japan.
Chung says that the study can “benefit science” because “there are a lot of things we don’t know about memory. We have to capture the moment and do this now.”
The study is currently accepting survey responses, and all Mills students are encouraged to take the survey. Chinese and Japanese-language surveys are also available.
Take the survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/jet
You can read more related posts on The Campanil’s special page about the disaster in Japan.
Official article: Psychology professor, students study memories of Japan disaster
