Have you ever looked into "flashbulb" memories?
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@kryptik I read about it, that has to be why I remember bad things so clearly, the article even mentions President Kennedy and the space shuttle blowing up, I have one more that I can remember everything that happened I was 8 years old and saved an old man from drowning, he fell off of my Dad's dock in the inlet with the tide ebbing, I ran down the dock to get ahead of him, and climbed down a piling and stuck my leg out for him to grab (Dad always told us to never jump in if someone was in trouble, to throw something to them, they could take us under with them) I did not have anything to throw to him. I could tell everything that happened, even how he fell, what he was wearing, the chair he had to sit on, etc, and afterward diving down to get his fishing pole back, his wife yelling get his hat, it is all still so clear to me, and this was 60 years ago.
So, I'm not trying to cause any trouble with you on this but I do neuroscience research. Something very interesting with flashbulb memories is that a lot of studies find that most of them are not particularly accurate. This probably has to do with how we compress and retrieve our memories over time.
It always blows my mind to think that my most vivid memories are likely inaccurate. It's not something I feel comfortable with but the brain is a crazy place!
I do think that emotional attachment will make a memory more pronounced. Arousal and valence scores can trigger memories in different ways. I did a pilot study on this involving images. Maybe I'll pick back up on that in the future.
@kryptik, I found what you say very interesting, and do not doubt it. I can only repeat what my mind remembers, I know the circumstances are true but like I found out about President JFK's death, I thought it happened right after lunch but someone said it was much later in the day. Thank you for your input.