'Where were you when..?' – The flashbulb memory effect
Geoffrey Beattie
I have always been fascinated and depressed by the vagaries of human memory, long before I became a psychologist. Like anyone who has lost a parent early in life, I have always longed for vivid memories of my father, as I wished to relive our days together.
I was close to my father, but my memories of those days are weak and disjointed. He has no voice in my memory, no distinctive pattern of movement (how did he walk?), and his smile is the smile of photographs (that slightly...