What's really crazy about the idea of flashbulb memories is how certain people are of them. I remember reading about one exercise in a journal--it might be the same one referred to in the article above--where students were asked to write things down about 11 September the day after it happened. A year-ish later they were asked about their memories; most had details incorrect, and some were entirely wrong, and even argued that what they had written down at the time was wrong, or it wasn't what they'd actually written down.

I'm positive that I remember the Challenger accident; I'm sure that I was watching it at school, since a teacher was on board (the first teacher in space!). The teachers were in shock when it happened; about half the students just shrugged and made shitty jokes (because middle school). But how can I be sure that my memories of that event are accurate, without some kind of contemporary record of them? Do I have details wrong? I know that when I talk to my parents, they remember things from when I was growing up very differently than I do.