Final answer:
Flashbulb memories are highly detailed, vivid and long-lasting memories of the circumstances surrounding one's learning of an emotionally charged event, strengthened by an emotional arousal mechanism and often retained in long-term memory.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding Flashbulb Memories
The term you're thinking of is flashbulb memory. This concept refers to the vivid, long-lasting memories people have about the circumstances in which they first learned of a highly emotional event. These are not just ordinary memories but are exceptionally clear recollections of an important event. A classic example often cited is where individuals were and what they were doing when they heard about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In fact, a study showed that a vast majority of Americans, who were 8 years old or older at the time of the attacks, could still vividly recall the event a decade later.
Flashbulb memories are believed to form through arousal theory, which postulates that strong emotions can trigger the release of neurotransmitters and hormones, such as glutamate, that significantly bolster memory formation. Consequently, our memory of emotionally intense events tends to be stronger than that of non-emotional events. The intensity of these memories can also lead to a phenomenon where people confidently recall whole events that may have never occurred or remember them inaccurately, which relates to the controversies around repressed and recovered memories.
The complexity of flashbulb memories encompasses a range of cognitive processes, including how we encode and retain events of great personal or collective emotional significance, and how these events are anchored in our long-term memory, typically using models like the Atkinson-Shiffrin model.