The 'flashbulb' memory you'd swear is perfect is often flat wrong

People report vivid, detailed memories of shocking news, where they were, who told them, and feel unusually confident those memories are accurate. Follow-up studies that tracked people's own accounts over years found the details drift and even contradict what they said right after the event, even as their confidence stays sky-high.

— Roger Brown and James Kulik, Flashbulb Memories — Cognition, 1977

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