The book is based on a study of people's memories of the Challenger explosion, and compares these 'flashbulb' memories with those of normal events.

Recollections of unexpected and emotional events (called 'flashbulb' memories) have long been the subject of theoretical speculation. Previous meetings have brought together everyone who has done research on memories of the Challenger explosion, in order to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of flashbulb memories. How do flashbulb memories compare with other kinds of recollections? Are they unusually accurate, or especially long-lived? Do they reflect the activity of a special mechanism, as has been suggested? Although Affect and Accuracy in Recall focuses on flashbulb memories, it addresses more general issues of affect and accuracy. Do emotion and arousal strengthen memory? If so, under what conditions? By what physiological mechanisms? This volume is evidence of progress made in memory research since Brown and Kulick's 1977 paper.

Preface
List of contributors
1. Introduction Eugene Winograd
Part I. Empirical Studies: 2. Phantom flashbulbs: false recollections of hearing the news about Challenger Ulric Neisser and Nicole Harsch
3. Potential flashbulbs: memories of ordinary news as the baseline Steen F. Larsen
4. Flashbulb memories: confidence, consistency, and quantity John Neil Bohannon III and Victoria Louise Symons
Part II. Developmental Studies: 5. Developmental issues in flashbulb memory research: children recall the Challenger event Amye Richelle Warren and Jeffery N. Swartwood
6. Preschool children's memories of personal circumstances: the fire alarm study David B. Pillemer
Part III. Emotion and Memory: 7. A proposed neurobiological basis for regulating memory storage for significant events Paul E. Gold
8. Remembering the details of emotional events Daniel Reisberg and Friderike Heuer
9. Do flashbulb memories differ from other types of emotional memories? Sven-Ake Christianson
10. Why do traumatic experiences sometimes produce good memory (flashbulbs) and sometimes no memory (repression)? Elizabeth F. Loftus and Leah Kaufman
Part IV. Theoretical Issues: 11. Special versus ordinary memory mechanisms in the genesis of flashbulb memories Michael McCloskey
12. Remembering personal circumstances: a functional analysis David B. Pillemer
13. Constraints on memory David C. Rubin
14. The theoretical and empirical status of the flashbulb memory hypothesis William F. Brewer
Author index
Subject index.