Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T08:13:21.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Flashbulb memories: Confidence, consistency, and quantity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2010

Eugene Winograd
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Ulric Neisser
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Get access

Summary

The event

On January 28, 1986 at 11:38 a.m. EST, the Space Shuttle Challenger rose into the sky on a pillar of fire. It carried five men and two women aloft, including the first black astronaut, and the first teacher to go into space, Christa McAuliffe. Approximately 72 seconds into the flight, shortly after the astronauts had received and acknowledged the command to go to full throttle, the main external fuel tank exploded. The Challenger disintegrated, killing all on board before the horrified eyes of millions. A high-level executive for Morton-Thiokol, the company that made the solid rocket boosters, watched the vapor trail from the moment of launch and knew something was wrong. After the explosion the booster engines continued to burn and flew off on tangential trajectories. Ironically, his first thought was that at least the boosters that his company manufactured had performed well. He remembered wondering who was going to head the disaster investigation and who was to blame. Shortly thereafter, he was to receive another shock. The booster rockets were responsible for the explosion, and his company's executive decisions were shown to have been determined by expediency and characterized by a blatant disregard for safety.

If the man in question had been only one out of a few people with unusual memories for their personal discoveries of the Challenger disaster, there would be no reason for this book.

Type
Chapter
Information
Affect and Accuracy in Recall
Studies of 'Flashbulb' Memories
, pp. 65 - 92
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×