it is difficult to measure the accuracy of flashbulb memories because you can't prove whether someone's account of an event is correct or not
Loftus memories can easily be altered by information recieved after the event- are flashbulb memories the same?
Wright (1993) interviewed people about their recall of the Hillsborough disaster to see if the event had produced some flashbulb memories- after five months, most people's memories were quite vague and contained some biases- these people had a blend of their real experiences and some information given to them after the event
Wright argues that flashbulb memories are no different from normal memories as they can be altered just the same
Mcloskey et al (1988) similar experiment to Wright but used the space shuttle challenger explosion- found that participants forgot elements of the event and that their recall had errors in it
Conway et al (1994) said that the space shuttle explosion was not a good example because it didn't have significance to the ppts- used Thatcher's resignation for people in the UK- 11 months after the event 86% still had flashbulb memories
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