... memory by looking at flashbulb memories, repression, perceptual defence, mood and thought congruity and mood-state dependent memory. Often people have very vivid and detailed memories of the circumstances they were in when they first heard of an exceptionally emotional event such as a natural disaster, the death of an internationally famous person, or an invasion of one country by another. Brown and Kulik (1977) called these kinds of memories flashbulb memories and claimed, that they are qualitatively different to normal memories in respect to their longevity, accuracy and use of a special neural mechanism. Although there is no agreement between different cognitive psychologists on whether flashbulb memories are really qualitatively different (McCloskey, Wible and Cohen (1988) for example claim that they are simply stronger versions of ordinary memories), Bohannon (1988) found that one of the factors that influences good long-term memory is a strong emotional reaction to a stimuli. Although ...

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