Flashbulb Memories
What is a Flashbulb Memory?
A flashbulb memory is a vivid, emotionally charged recollection of the moment someone learns about a major personal or public event. These memories are often detailed and enduring, capturing both the central event and the surrounding context, such as where the person was, who they were with, what they were doing, and how they felt. People often describe flashbulb memories as fixed in place, unusually rich in context, and easier to retrieve than everyday memories, even if the accuracy of the details shifts over time.
The Basic Idea
Imagine you’re sitting in your bedroom, refreshing your inbox after a long day. You’ve spent the past three months waiting to hear back from your top-choice university. Then, the subject line appears. It’s a message from the admissions office. You open the email, scan the first few sentences, and realize you’ve been accepted with a full-ride scholarship. At that moment, time seems to freeze. You notice the light outside your window, the exact song playing in your headphones, the soft weight of your hoodie, and the clean scent of fresh laundry it still carries. Even years later, those details remain stamped into your memory, as vivid and immediate as the first time you felt them.
This type of recollection is what psychologists refer to as a flashbulb memory: a vivid, emotionally intense snapshot of the circumstances surrounding a meaningful event. These memories focus less on the event itself and more on the moment you first experienced it, including where you were, your body and brain’s response to that information, and what you did in the minutes that followed.
Flashbulb memories form when a moment’s emotional weight and relevance suddenly pull our attention in.1 They can form around joyful breakthroughs, personal losses, or collective events like national crises. The brain treats these moments differently, locking in the sights, sounds, and even smells that would normally fade in the background.2 People often describe these memories as crystal-clear, yet they’re just as susceptible to change over time as any other memory.4 The difference lies in how strong an impression they make on us, even when what we remember doesn’t fully match what happened.
These memories also take shape through conversation.4 When people repeatedly tell the story of where they were and how they reacted, they reinforce particular elements and build meaning around the moment. Over time, this social rehearsal can strengthen the memory’s structure, even as minor elements begin to blur. What these memories do is highlight the brain’s instinct to seize on emotionally charged moments and store their surroundings with unusual clarity.
On a neurological level, flashbulb memories form when the amygdala, which is the brain’s emotional alarm system, ramps up its activity in response to an intense moment.5 This surge in neural firing signals the hippocampus, which is often described as the brain’s timekeeper, to store the surrounding details more vividly. As a result, emotional salience and context get tied together more tightly than in everyday memories, creating an experience that feels unusually intense and anchored in time.
“Flashbulb Memories are memories for the circumstances in which one first learned of a very surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) event.”
— Roger Brown and James Kulik, pioneers of flashbulb memory research at Harvard University1
About the Author
Maryam Sorkhou
Maryam holds an Honours BSc in Psychology from the University of Toronto and is currently completing her PhD in Medical Science at the same institution. She studies how sex and gender interact with mental health and substance use, using neurobiological and behavioural approaches. Passionate about blending neuroscience, psychology, and public health, she works toward solutions that center marginalized populations and elevate voices that are often left out of mainstream science.
