(A) The Case of Mrs. Tomoko – Memories of the White Tiger
Mrs. Tomoko was 30 years old at the time of her visits to Expo 70. She visited Expo on two
occasions, the first time in a group comprising her mother, sisters and brother, the second time
with her own family – two children aged 4 and 11 years, her husband, and brother/sister in-law.
During the early stages of the interview, participants were asked to discuss their memories and
impressions of their visit(s) to expo unprompted by any cues, so as to allow the participants to
discuss freely their spontaneous memories of the event. Mrs. Tomoko began the discussion with
her recollections of the key icons of the Expo, including the Sun Tower, the U.S. and USSR
Pavilions, and the ever present crowds of people. As part of her second visit to Expo, she vividly
remembers and describes in detail the visit she made to the Indian Pavilion with the intent of
seeing the White Tiger – a feature exhibit of an animal named "Dalip," one of only 33 existing in
the world at that time.
One of the memories that sticks with me the most is the Indian Pavilion. So we went into the
Indian Pavilion. We had read in the newspaper that there was a White Tiger exhibit. So,
MV
0 Negative Affect (#) (#) Positive Affect
Well
Planned
Agenda
No
Planned
Agenda
Weakly
Planned
Agenda
Agenda Frustration (*) (*) Agenda Fulfillment
A* #
B* #
C #
C#
D* # D* #
E E*
0
Memories of Expo 70: Insights on Visitors’ Experiences and the Formation of Vivid Long-Term Memories - Dr David Anderson 14
we were able to see it and it was so wonderful! - Although it wasn’t completely white! The
newspaper had called the White Tiger, “God’s Tiger-Dog” [God’s pet]. Even now I can
remember it perfectly. Even though the newspaper said it was white, it was more of a
yellow shade. The White Tiger was in a cage, and the on-lookers were about two meters
away all around the cage. It wasn’t a circular configuration – it was only along two sides
of the cage, and inside there was one animal – so there was one large space devoted to this
exhibit. The Tiger is my most memorable experience of the Expo.
Mrs. Tomoko discusses her recollections of planning to visit the Indian Pavilion, and about
having read about the White Tiger in the newspaper and from other sources. From the above
excerpt, she expresses some of her delight in seeing this rare specimen and in the course of the
interview her body language, gestures, and gazes that convey a rapturous wonderment and
appreciation of recollection of the episode at expo. She also draws a small sketch of the pavilion
and illustrates the position of the Tiger cage, and the flow pattern of the path that she took as she
gazed on the animal. To Mrs. Tomoko, this experience was highly aesthetic experience that
evoked a very positive emotional response.
We theorize that the vividness of Mrs. Tomoko memories of this episode are accounted for in
several ways. First, Mrs. Tomoko memories of experiencing the White Tiger exhibit are
characterized by strong positive affect – it was a highly aesthetic experience that even to this day
brings back pleasant memories as she recalls and relives the experience 34 years past. We see
the strong positive affect as being partly responsible for the vividness of this memory. Second,
Mrs. Tomoko clearly pre-planned to see this exhibit before coming to Expo, there is evidence
from the above transcript, especially the effort she made to read about this exhibition in the
newspaper and other media and was subsequently motivated to intentionalize the visit to the
Indian Pavilion expressly with the purpose of seeing Gods Tiger. We believe that because this
planned agenda was fulfilled beyond the expectations of Mrs. Tomoko and resulting in very
strong positive affect, the memory vividness is strongly encoded and leaves a impressive impact
of the episode 34 years later.