Remembering September 11th 2001: Early correlates of later memory vividness, confidence, and errror

100 students were approached twice: The day after the attack on World Trade Center (early data) and nine months later (memory data). Early ratings of having talked and, in particular, thought about the event predicted later memory better than other early measures. Errors were frequent but largely equivalent in meaning although wrong in detail. Results seem inconsistent with suggestions of a special flashbulb memory mechanism operating at immediate encoding, but consistent with suggestions of normal memory processes elicited by strange situations.