Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

bulb memories 
are memories related to a specifi c, important, or surprising event 
that are so vivid they represent a virtual snapshot of the event.
Several types of fl ashbulb memories are common among college students. For 
example, involvement in a car accident, meeting one’s roommate for the fi rst time, 
and the night of high school graduation are all typical fl ashbulb memories (Romeu, 
2006; Bohn & Berntsen, 2007; Talarico, 2009; see Figure 3). 
Of course, fl ashbulb memories do not contain every detail of an original scene. 
I remember vividly that more than four decades ago I was sitting in Mr. Sharp’s 
10th-grade geometry class when I heard that President John Kennedy had been shot. 
However, although I recall where I was sitting and how my classmates reacted to 
the news, I do not recollect what I was wearing or what I had for lunch that day. 
Furthermore, the details recalled in fl ashbulb memories are often inaccurate. For 
example, think back to the tragic day when the World Trade Center in New York 
was attacked by suicidal terrorists. Do you remember watching television that morn-
ing and seeing images of the fi rst plane, and then the second plane, striking the 
towers? 
If you do, you are among the 73% of Americans who recall viewing the initial 
television images of both planes on September 11, 2001. However, that recollection 
is wrong: In fact, television broadcasts showed images only of the second plane on 
September 11. No video of the fi rst plane was available until early the following 
morning, September 12, when it was shown on television (Begley, 2002). 
Flashbulb memories illustrate a more general phenomenon about memory: Mem-
ories that are exceptional are more easily retrieved (although not necessarily accu-
rately) than are those relating to events that are commonplace. The more distinctive 
a stimulus is, and the more personal relevance the event has, the more likely we are 
to recall it later (Berntsen & Thomsen, 2005; Shapiro, 2006; Talarico & Rubin, 2007). 
Even with a distinctive stimulus, however, we may not remember where the 
information came from. Source amnesia occurs when an individual has a memory for 
some material but cannot recall where he or she encountered it. For example, source 
amnesia can explain situations in which you meet someone you know but can’t 
remember where you’d met that person initially.