text:
Talk:Skewes's number

Confusion
The results from google are confusing, can't guarantee the accuracy of this article. كسيپ Cyp 13:32 20 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I believe the treatment in mathworld, which this article follows, is wrong. I edited the article to reflect my current understanding. AxelBoldt 14:06, 30 Sep 2003 (UTC)

So, what's the best known lower bound for Skewes' number? this seems a rather interesting mathematical constant.

How is it that $$e^{e^{e^{79}}} \approx 10^{10^{10^{34}}}$$ if
 * $$e^{e^{e^{79}}} \approx$$
 * $$e^{e^{2.038 \times 10^{34}}} =$$
 * $$e^{\left(e^{2.038} \right)^{10^{34}}} \approx$$
 * $$e^{7.677^{10^{34}}} << $$
 * $$10^{10^{10^{34}}}$$

MIT Trekkie 07:35, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)
 * With really large numbers, the concept of approximately equal is much broader, since such numbers are difficult to even write down with precision. For example, $$e^{e^{e^{79}}} \approx 10^{10^{10^{33.9470483816574311735621520930}}}$$. A small uprounding in the last exponent causes an enormous increase in the power tower, but they are so large numbers that nobody can notice. However, I'll change the text to a slightly more accurate value.--Army1987 15:46, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Is Skewes' first name Samuel or Stanley? The :de wiki says Stanley, but I always thought it was Samuel. Both have references on Google.

Demichel result
It seems to me that the Demichel result should not be included here, as it appears not to have been properly reviewed and published (i.e., it violates WP:OR). Can anyone explain why it should stay? I notice that MathWorld includes it, but I don't think that's a good reason for it to be here. Doctormatt 00:52, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Good point. (I'm going to be away from the Wiki for a bit, so I don't have time to look at it in detail.)  It doesn't seem to have been published, and it states it's probable that it's the correct answer, without giving an estimate of the probabilities in question.  — Arthur Rubin |  (talk) 01:00, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * MathSciNet makes no mention of anything published by Demichel. Doctormatt 01:14, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * If WAREL had removed Demichel, as well as adding his 2006 result, he wouldn't have been blocked. I don't know why he doesn't support his edits when he has support, but.... — Arthur Rubin |  (talk) 01:16, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * OOPS, it looks as if WAREL's result is from arXiv, which is not much better. — Arthur Rubin |  (talk) 01:21, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Do you mean the Chao/Plymen result? Yes, that is unpublished and I think we should remove it, too.  Doctormatt 01:56, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm at WP:3RR for a few more hours. Someone else will have to revert.  — Arthur Rubin |  (talk) 07:10, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Possible Category Misplacement
I believe that the placement of this article into Category:Integers is perhaps mathematically incorrect. The article gives reference to the "historical" Skewes' number (i.e. the 1933 upper bound proven assuming the RH), which cannot be an integer (or rational number, for that matter) which is implied by the fact that e is irrational. The article also speaks of a Skewes' number (in some sense) in which I believe there is very little reason to believe that the "true" Skewes' number given by the least upper bound for a violation of the defining inequality is an integer. It seems to me that it would be very odd and unnatural and perhaps even disconcerting if the least upper bound (Skewes' number) was given by an integer exactly. For, while the prime counting function takes on only integer values in its range, the logarithmic integral function is continuous (even if defined around its point of discontinuity by the Cauchy principal value of the defining integral), and so moves through a range of values continuously except at prime arguments. This would seem to indicate that the chances of Skewes' number being an integer are pretty much nil. If this seems to be too picky, feel free to ignore me, but it seems to me that placing the article in the integers category would likely be mathematically incorrect. 75.204.164.105 10:01, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

 * You are right. I removed the Integers categorization. Owen× ☎  12:07, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Genitive spelling
I tried to fix the spelling of the article name but I was persuaded to revert because this is a common error in publications. --Yecril (talk) 21:14, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

 * English is my second language and I'm not good at English grammar but spelling like in Skewes' number seems common to me and OK with Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Grammar which mentions the similar Selous' Mongoose. There is Requested moves if you want more input. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:01, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

If s/he is called Skewe it should be Skewe's number. If s/he is called Skewes, it is fine. However, I have found evidence that his/her name is Skewe at http://thinkzone.wlonk.com/MathFun/BigNum.htm

 * His name is Stanley Skewes and the article should remain at Skewes' number. CRGreathouse (t | c) 23:21, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Asimov's article
In 1975 Dr Isaac Asimov wrote a book "Of matters great and small", which contained an 1974 article about the Skewes' number entitled "Skewered!". In this article he elaborates on the magnitude of the Skewes' number and developes a "T number" notation method for trying to judge the relative size of competitive number values.WFPM (talk) 12:04, 9 August 2009 (UTC) PS It's too bad he didn't live long enough to write about Graham's number.

 * Thanks, that sounds like a good reference for us to work into the article somehow. — Carl (CBM · talk) 12:24, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

First Skewes' number
I am interested in the first Skewes number, but could not know how it came up. Could some explain? Particularly, I want to know why the number 79 takes place. Thanks. Motomuku (talk) 00:34, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Point of View
The article includes In the unlikely event that the Riemann hypothesis is false ... Isn't this POV and against Wiki rules? Jamesdowallen (talk) 16:44, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
 * It is tricky to talk about the "likelihood" of a mathematical hypothesis being true or false. But in this context, considering almost all mathematicians would be greatly surprised if RH is shown to be false, and taking into account the vast literature supporting this view (much of it referenced in the RH article), I'd say the statement is supported by the current prevailing view among mathematicians, not that of the editor. The editor correctly reflected that consensus in his comment. Owen× ☎  17:22, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

To CRGreathouse
There's nothing to discuss. It's all written in the second and third pages of Chao-Plymen's. Cheers.Orera (talk) 20:17, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, and I have a more recent source that improves on Chao & Plyman. CRGreathouse (t | c) 23:37, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I've added a reference, as requested. CRGreathouse (t | c) 07:33, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Leading digits
First digits of "number of digits" of first Skewes' number are: 330029255166326825898754163191261961592660037254068... (there are exactly 8852142197546379817324538072456058 (~8.852 decillion) digits).

First digits of "number of digits" of second Skewes' number are: 19250175074550025517358274500420096629624959931105... (there are ~ 10963 digits).

All computed by logarithms and very precise calculators like this: --http://markknowsnothing.com/cgi-bin/calculator.php

Is it possible to determine leading digits in decimal expansion of Skewes' numbers? 31.42.235.14 (talk) 10:20, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

A question, probably idiotic and probably also out of place, but nevertheless ...
From the article:

 * John Edensor Littlewood, Skewes' teacher, proved (in (Littlewood 1914)) that there is such a number (and so, a first such number); ...

Why does it follow that there is a first number. Littlewood proved, according to the wording here, that there is an upper bound. I can't for the life of me see that a first number has to be a consequence of that. What am I missing? All the best 85.220.22.139 (talk) 01:46, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

 * Please disregard the text above. The prime counting function is discrete. Mea culpa, but I just came home from a party, so ... Well, write drunk, edit sober. All the best 85.220.22.139 (talk) 01:51, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

What's ment by e^{727.9 ..}?
What is really ment by " e^{727.95133} " ? I presume e to be the base of the natural logarithms, around 2,71. But the exponent - is it 72795133 or 727,95133 ? If the first is corret (which seems likely, then why the dot. I mean 72.795.133 wouldn't be difficult to understand but the "3 dot 5" figures makes me uncertain. Boeing720 (talk) 17:58, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

 * It's a correctly used decimal point and shouldn't be changed. You are from a country where a comma is used instead (so am I), but this is the English Wikipedia and a period is dominant in English speaking countries. See our Manual of Style at WP:DECIMAL. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:20, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

This article needs an explanation of what it is about.
This may all be very interesting to mathematicians, but there is no attempt at explaining to the lay reader what Skewes' number is about / for. Could someone please add a paragraph to summarise what the significance of this subject is? Richard75 (talk) 15:33, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

I agree with Richard! Us dummies want to know the significance of this finding.- tim

title: Talk:Skewes's number


text:
Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton (born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and public speaker. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published Essays in Love (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997), Status Anxiety (2004), and The Architecture of Happiness (2006).

He co-founded The School of Life in 2008 and Living Architecture in 2009. In 2015, he was awarded "The Fellowship of Schopenhauer", an annual writers' award from the Melbourne Writers Festival, for that work.

Early life and family
De Botton was born in Zürich, the son of Jacqueline (née Burgauer) and Gilbert de Botton. Gilbert was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but after being expelled under Nasser, he went to live and work in Switzerland, where he co-founded an investment firm, Global Asset Management; his family was estimated to have been worth £234 million in 1999.

Alain de Botton's Swiss-born mother was Ashkenazi, and his father was from a Sephardic Jewish family from the town of Boton in Castile and León. De Botton's ancestors include Abraham de Boton. De Botton's paternal grandmother was Yolande Harmer, a Jewish-Egyptian journalist who spied for Israel and died in Jerusalem.

He has one sister, Miel, and they received a secular upbringing. Alain spent the first twelve years of his life in Switzerland where he was brought up speaking French and German.

Education
De Botton attended the Dragon School where English became his primary language. He was later sent to board and study at Harrow School, a public school in England. He has often described his childhood as that of a shy child living in boarding schools.

De Botton read history at University of Cambridge, where he was a member of Gonville and Caius College, graduating with a double starred first. He then completed an MPhil in Philosophy at King's College, London (1991–1992), and began studying for a PhD in French philosophy at Harvard University. However, he gave up his research to write books for the general public.

Fiction
In his first novel, Essays in Love (titled On Love in the U.S.), published in 1993, de Botton deals with the process of falling in and out of love. In 2010, Essays in Love was adapted to film by director Julian Kemp for the romantic comedy My Last Five Girlfriends. De Botton wrote a sequel to Essays in Love, published in 2016, titled The Course of Love.

Non-fiction
In 1997 he published his first non-fiction book, How Proust Can Change Your Life, based on the life and works of Marcel Proust. It was a bestseller in both the US and UK.

This was followed by The Consolations of Philosophy in 2000. The title of the book is a reference to Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, in which philosophy appears as an allegorical figure to Boethius to console him in the period leading up to his impending execution. In The Consolations of Philosophy, de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such as Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Socrates can be applied to modern everyday woes. The book has been both praised and criticized for its therapeutic approach to philosophy.

In 2004, he published Status Anxiety.

In The Architecture of Happiness (2006), he discusses the nature of beauty in architecture and how it is related to the well-being and general contentment of the individual and society. He describes how architecture affects people every day, though people rarely pay particular attention to it. A good portion of the book discusses how human personality traits are reflected in architecture. He defends Modernist architecture, and chastises the pseudo-vernacular architecture of housing, especially in the UK. "The best modern architecture," he argues, "doesn't hold a mirror up to nature, though it may borrow a pleasing shape or expressive line from nature's copybook. It gives voice to aspirations and suggests possibilities. The question isn't whether you'd actually like to live in a Le Corbusier home, but whether you'd like to be the kind of person who'd like to live in one."

In The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009), de Botton produced a survey of ten different jobs, including accountancy, rocket science and biscuit manufacture. The book, a piece of narrative non-fiction, includes two hundred original images and aims to unlock the beauty, interest and occasional horror of the modern world of work. After a negative review of the book by New York Times critic Caleb Crain, de Botton posted a scathing ad hominem attack against Crain. He later apologized for his remarks.

In August 2009, de Botton applied to a competition advertised among British literary agents by the airport management company BAA for the post of "writer-in-residence" at Heathrow Airport. The post involved being seated at a desk in Terminal 5, and writing about the comings and goings of passengers over a week. De Botton was appointed to the position. The result was the book, A Week at the Airport, published by Profile Books in September 2009. The book features photographs by the documentary photographer Richard Baker, with whom de Botton also worked on The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work.

In January 2012, de Botton published Religion for Atheists, about the benefits of religions for those who do not believe in them. De Botton put it: "It's clear to me that religions are in the end too complex, interesting and on occasion wise to be abandoned simply to those who believe in them". In April 2012, he published How to Think More about Sex, one in a series of six books on topics of emotional life published by his enterprise, The School of Life.

In October 2013, he published Art as Therapy, co-written with the Australian-Scottish art historian, John Armstrong. Art as Therapy argues that certain great works of art "offer clues on managing the tensions and confusions of everyday life".

In February 2014, de Botton published his fourteenth book, a title called The News: A User's Manual, a study of the effects of the news on modern mentality, viewed through the prism of 25 news stories, culled from a variety of sources, which de Botton analyses in detail. The book delved with more rigour into de Botton's analyses of the modern media that appeared in Status Anxiety.

Newspapers
De Botton used to write articles for several English newspapers and from 1998 to 2000 wrote a regular column for The Independent on Sunday.

Lecturing, television and radio
De Botton travels extensively to lecture. He has given lectures at TED conferences. In July 2011, he spoke in Edinburgh about "Atheism 2.0", an idea of atheism that also incorporates our human need for connection, ritual and transcendence. In July 2009, he spoke at Oxford University about the philosophy of failure and success, and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments.

In 2011 he presented a series of talks for the BBC Radio 4 series A Point of View.

He has his own production company, Seneca Productions, which makes television documentaries based upon his works.

Reception of his writing
De Botton has written in a variety of formats to mixed response. Positive reviews of his books attest that he has made literature, philosophy and art more accessible to a wider audience.

Negative reviews allege that de Botton tends to state the obvious and have characterized some of his books as pompous and lacking focus.

In response to a question about whether he felt "pulled" to be a writer, de Botton responded: So I think where people tend to end up results from a combination of encouragement, accident, and lucky break, etc. etc. Like many others, my career happened like it did because certain doors opened and certain doors closed. You know, at a certain point I thought it would be great to make film documentaries. Well, in fact, I found that to be incredibly hard and very expensive to do and I didn't really have the courage to keep battling away at that. In another age, I might have been an academic in a university, if the university system had been different. So it's all about trying to find the best fit between your talents and what the world can offer at that point in time.

The School of Life
In 2008, Alain de Botton was one of a team of writers and educators who founded The School of Life. Based in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Seoul, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, São Paulo, Berlin and Melbourne, The School of Life offers an emotional education focusing in particular on the issues of Work and Relationships. In an interview with Metkere.com de Botton said: The idea is to challenge traditional universities and reorganise knowledge, directing it towards life, and away from knowledge for its own sake. In a modest way, it’s an institution that is trying to give people what universities should I think always give them: a sense of direction and wisdom for their lives with the help of culture.

Living Architecture
In May 2009, de Botton launched a project called "Living Architecture," which builds holiday rental houses in the UK using leading contemporary architects. These include Peter Zumthor, MVRDV, JVA, NORD and Michael and Patti Hopkins. The most recent house to be announced is a collaboration between the Turner-prize winning artist Grayson Perry, and the architecture firm FAT. The houses are rented out to the general public. De Botton, the creative director and chairman of Living Architecture, aims to improve the appreciation of good contemporary architecture—a task that serves as a practical continuation of his theoretical work on architecture in his book The Architecture of Happiness. In October 2009, he was appointed an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in recognition of his services to architecture.

Museum displays
In 2014, de Botton was invited by three museums—the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto—to contribute content to special exhibitions based on his work, Art as Therapy. De Botton and his colleague John Armstrong inserted captions, arranged on large Post-it-style labels designed by the Dutch graphic artist, Irma Boom, bearing slogans and commentary on exhibits throughout the Rijksmuseum.

Personal life
De Botton has described his relationship with his father as difficult, stating: "When I sold my first bestseller (and a million dollars was peanuts for my father) he was not impressed and wondered what I was going to do with myself." When his father died, his family was left a large trust fund, although de Botton says his income is derived solely from his own activities (book sales, speaking engagements, business consulting, The School of Life). Alain's stepmother, Janet Wolfson de Botton, is a prominent patron of the arts and competition bridge player. He married his wife, Charlotte, in 2003 and they have two sons. De Botton lives in London with his family.

In August 2014, de Botton was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Books

 * Variant title in USA.
 * The Romantic Movement (1994)
 * Kiss and Tell (1995)
 * How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997)
 * The Consolations of Philosophy (2000)
 * The Art of Travel (2002)
 * Status Anxiety (2004)
 * The Architecture of Happiness (2006)
 * The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009)
 * A Week at the Airport (2009)
 * Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion (2012)
 * How to Think More About Sex (2012)
 * The News: A User's Manual (2014)
 * The Course of Love (2016)
 * ‘’A Therapeutic Journey - Lessons from the School of Life’’ (2023)
 * How to Think More About Sex (2012)
 * The News: A User's Manual (2014)
 * The Course of Love (2016)
 * ‘’A Therapeutic Journey - Lessons from the School of Life’’ (2023)
 * ‘’A Therapeutic Journey - Lessons from the School of Life’’ (2023)

Critical studies, reviews and biography

 * Review of Art as therapy.

Filmography

 * My Last Five Girlfriends (based on Essays in Love)

TV series

 * Philosophy: A Guide To Happiness (2000, from The Consolations of Philosophy)

 * 1) Socrates on Self-Confidence
 * 2) Epicurus on Happiness
 * 3) Seneca on Anger
 * 4) Montaigne on Self-Esteem
 * 5) Schopenhauer on Love
 * 6) Nietzsche on Hardship (featuring Cathal Grealish)
 * Status Anxiety
 * The Art of Travel
 * The Perfect Home (from The Architecture of Happiness)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Alain de Botton


text:
France national football team

The France national football team (Équipe de France de football) represents France in men's international football. It is controlled by the French Football Federation (FFF; Fédération française de football), the governing body for football in France. It is a member of UEFA in Europe and FIFA in global competitions. The team's colours and imagery reference two national symbols: the French blue-white-red tricolour and Gallic rooster (coq gaulois). The team is colloquially known as Les Bleus (The Blues). They play home matches at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis and train at Centre National du Football in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines.

Founded in 1904, the team has won two FIFA World Cups, two UEFA European Championships, one CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, two FIFA Confederations Cups and one UEFA Nations League title. France was one of the four European teams that participated in the first World Cup in 1930. Twenty-eight years later, the team led by Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine finished in third place at the 1958 World Cup. France experienced much of its success in three different eras: in the 1980s, the late 1990s to early 2000s, and the late 2010s to early 2020s. In 1984, under the leadership of the three-time Ballon d'Or winner Michel Platini, France won Euro 1984 (its first official title), a CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup (1985), and reached two World Cup semi-finals (1982 and 1986).

During the captaincy of Didier Deschamps, with Zinedine Zidane on the pitch, Les Bleus won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. They also won the Confederations Cup in 2001 and 2003. Three years later, France made it to the final of the 2006 World Cup, losing 5–3 on penalties to Italy. A decade later, the team reached the final of Euro 2016, where they lost 1–0 to Portugal in extra time. Two years after that, France won the 2018 World Cup, its second title in that competition. After winning the 2021 Nations League, they became the first, and so far, the only European national team to have won every senior FIFA and UEFA competition. In 2022, France reached a second consecutive World Cup final, but lost 4–2 on penalties to Argentina. France is also one of only two countries, the other being Brazil, to have won all men's FIFA 11-player competitions at all age levels,  having claimed both the FIFA World Cup, FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA U-17 World Cup, the now-defunct FIFA Confederations Cup, and Olympic title, as well as the first to complete the collection, after the U-20 national team captured the first U-20 World Cup title in 2013.

France has footballing rivalries with Belgium, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

Early years (1900–1930s)
The France national football team was created in 1904, around the time of FIFA's foundation. The team competed in its first official international match on 1 May 1904 against Belgium in Brussels, ending in a 3–3 draw. The following year, on 12 February 1905, France contested their first-ever home match against Switzerland. The match was played at the Parc des Princes in front of 500 supporters. France won the match 1–0 with the only goal coming from Gaston Cyprès. Due to disagreements between FIFA and the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA), the country's sports union, France struggled to establish an identity. On 9 May 1908, the French Interfederal Committee (CFI), a rival organization to the USFSA, ruled that FIFA would now be responsible for the club's appearances in forthcoming Olympic Games and not the USFSA. In 1919, the CFI transformed themselves into the French Football Federation (FFF). In 1921, the USFSA finally merged with the FFF.

In July 1930, France appeared in the inaugural FIFA World Cup, held in Uruguay. In their first-ever World Cup match, France defeated Mexico 4–1 at the Estadio Pocitos in Montevideo. Lucien Laurent scored the first goal in World Cup history. Conversely, France also became the first team to not score in a World Cup match after losing 1–0 to group stage opponents Argentina. Another loss to Chile resulted in the team bowing out in the group stage. The following year saw the first selection of a black player to the national team. Raoul Diagne, who was of Senegalese descent, earned his first cap on 15 February in a 2–1 defeat to Czechoslovakia. Diagne later played with the team at the 1938 World Cup, alongside Larbi Benbarek, who was one of the first players of North African origin to play for the national team. At the 1934 World Cup, France suffered elimination in the opening round, losing 3–2 to Austria. On the team's return to Paris, they were greeted as heroes by a crowd of over 4,000 supporters. France hosted the 1938 World Cup and reached the quarterfinals, losing 3–1 to defending champions (and eventual 1938 winners) Italy.

1950s–1980s
France's first 'Golden Generation' in the late 1950s comprised players such as Just Fontaine, Raymond Kopa, Jean Vincent, Robert Jonquet, Maryan Wisnieski, Thadée Cisowski, and Armand Penverne. At the 1958 World Cup, France reached the semi-finals losing to Brazil. In the third-place match, France defeated West Germany 6–3 with Fontaine recording four goals, which brought his goal tally in the competition to 13, a World Cup record. The record still stands today. France hosted the inaugural UEFA European Football Championship in 1960. For the second straight international tournament, the team reached the semi-finals, but were defeated 5–4 by Yugoslavia despite being up 4–2 heading into the 75th minute. In the third-place match, France was defeated 2–0 by Czechoslovakia.

The 1960s and 1970s saw France decline significantly playing under several managers and failing to qualify for numerous international tournaments. On 25 April 1962, Henri Guérin was officially installed as the team's first manager. Under Guérin, France failed to qualify for the 1962 World Cup and the 1964 European Nations' Cup. The team returned to major international play with qualification for the 1966 World Cup, but did not make it past the group stage phase of the tournament. Guérin was fired following the World Cup. He was replaced by José Arribas and Jean Snella, who worked as caretaker managers in dual roles. The two only lasted four matches and were replaced by former international Just Fontaine, who in turn was only in charge for two matches. Louis Dugauguez succeeded Fontaine and following his early struggles in qualification for the 1970 World Cup, was fired and replaced by Georges Boulogne, who could not get the team to the competition. Boulogne was later fired following his failure to qualify for the 1974 World Cup and was replaced by the Romanian Ștefan Kovács, who became the only international manager to ever manage the national team. Under the management of Kovács, France failed to qualify for UEFA Euro 1976. After two years in charge, he was sacked and replaced with Michel Hidalgo.

Under Hidalgo, France flourished, mainly due to the accolades of great players like defenders Marius Trésor and Maxime Bossis, striker Dominique Rocheteau and midfielder Michel Platini, who, alongside Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse and Luis Fernández formed the "carré magique" ("Magic Square"), which would haunt opposing defenses beginning at the 1982 World Cup, where France reached the semi-finals losing on penalties to rivals West Germany. The semi-final match-up is considered one of the greatest matches in World Cup history and was marked by controversy. France finished fourth overall, losing the third-place playoff 3–2 to Poland. France earned their first major international honor two years later, winning Euro 1984, which they hosted. Under the leadership of Platini, who scored a tournament-high nine goals, France defeated Spain 2–0 in the final. Platini and Bruno Bellone scored the goals. Following the Euro triumph, Hidalgo departed the team and was replaced by former international Henri Michel. France subsequently won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics football tournament and, a year later, defeated Uruguay 2–0 to win the Artemio Franchi Trophy, an early precursor to the FIFA Confederations Cup. Dominique Rocheteau and José Touré scored the goals. In a span of a year, France were holders of three of the four major international trophies. At the 1986 World Cup, France reached the semi-finals and faced West Germany. They were defeated again by the Germans but achieved third place with a 4–2 victory over Belgium.

In 1988, the FFF opened the Clairefontaine National Football Institute. Its opening ceremony was attended by then-President of France, François Mitterrand. Five months after Clairefontaine's opening, manager Henri Michel was fired and was replaced by Michel Platini, who failed to get the team to the 1990 World Cup.

Zidane era and World Champions (1996–2006)
Under Houllier, France and its supporters experienced a major disappointment in failing to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. With two matches to play, qualification had been all but secured with matches remaining against last-placed Israel and in-contention Bulgaria. However, France was upset at home by Israel 3–2 after leading 2–1 late in the match and, against Bulgaria, conceded a 90th-minute goal for a 2–1 defeat. The subsequent blame and public outcry led to the firing of Houllier and departure of several players, from the national team fold. Houllier's assistant Aimé Jacquet was appointed as manager.

Under Jacquet, the national team achieved multiple successes. The squad comprised some experienced players from the group that had failed to reach the 1994 World Cup as well as some talented younger players, such as Zinedine Zidane. The team reached the semi-finals of Euro 1996, where they lost 6–5 on penalties to the Czech Republic. The team's next major tournament was the 1998 World Cup, which France hosted. France went through the tournament undefeated and became the seventh nation to win the World Cup, defeating Brazil 3–0 in the final at the Stade de France in Paris. Jacquet stepped down after the country's World Cup triumph and was succeeded by assistant Roger Lemerre who guided them through Euro 2000. Led by FIFA World Player of the Year Zidane, France defeated Italy 2–1 in the final. David Trezeguet scored the golden goal in extra time. The victory gave the team the distinction of holding both the World Cup and Euro titles, a feat first achieved by West Germany in 1974; this was also the first time that a reigning World Cup winner went on to capture the Euro. Following the result, the France national team was accorded the number one spot in the FIFA World Rankings. In the following year, the team won the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup.

After this period of achievement, France were much less successful in subsequent tournaments, and failed to make it past the group stage at the 2002 World Cup. One of the greatest shocks in World Cup history saw France defeated 1–0 by debutantes Senegal in the opening game of the tournament. France became only the second nation to be eliminated in the first round as World Cup holders, the first being Brazil in 1966. After the 2010, 2014, and 2018 World Cups, Italy, Spain, and Germany were also added to this list. After France finished bottom of the group, Lemerre was dismissed and was replaced by Jacques Santini. A full-strength team started out strongly at Euro 2004, but they were upset in the quarter-finals by the eventual winners Greece. Santini resigned as coach and Raymond Domenech was picked as his replacement. France struggled in the early qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup. This prompted Domenech to persuade several past members out of international retirement to help the national team qualify, which they accomplished following a convincing 4–0 win over Cyprus on the final day of qualifying. In the 2006 World Cup final stages, France finished undefeated in the group stage portion and advanced to the final, defeating Spain, Brazil, and Portugal in the knockout matches. France played Italy in the final. The match finished 1–1 after extra time. Zinedine Zidane had given France an early lead through a Panenka penalty which hit the crossbar before bouncing past the goal line, however Italy defender Marco Materazzi equalised from a header 7 minutes later. Italy ended up winning 5–3 on penalties to be crowned World Cup champions. The match featured a notable incident during extra time between Zidane and Materazzi in which Zidane headbutted Materazzi and was sent off. This was Zidane's last appearance in a football match as he announced previously that he would retire from football after the 2006 World Cup.

Decline and Rebuild (2007–2015)
France started its qualifying round for Euro 2008 strong and qualified for the tournament, despite two defeats to Scotland. After the performance in the qualifiers, France performed poorly at the final tournament, ending in last place of their group, behind Netherlands, Italy and Romania, obtaining just one point after a 0–0 draw with the Romanian side. Just like the team's previous World Cup qualifying campaign, the 2010 campaign got off to a disappointing start with France suffering disastrous losses and earning uninspired victories. France eventually finished second in the group and earned a spot in the UEFA play-offs against the Republic of Ireland for a place in South Africa. In the first leg, France defeated the Irish 1–0 and in the second leg procured a 1–1 draw, via a controversial act by France forward Thierry Henry, to qualify for the World Cup.

In the 2010 World Cup final stages, the team continued to perform under expectations and were eliminated in the group stage, while the negative publicity the national team received during the competition led to further repercussions back in France. Midway through the competition, striker Nicolas Anelka was dismissed from the national team after reportedly having a dispute, in which obscenities were passed, with team manager Raymond Domenech during half-time of the team's loss to Mexico. The resulting disagreement over Anelka's expulsion between the players, the coaching staff and FFF officials resulted in the players boycotting training before their third game. In response to the training boycott, Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot lectured the players and "reduced France's disgraced World Cup stars to tears with an emotional speech on the eve of their final group A match". France then lost their final game 2–1 to hosts South Africa and failed to advance to the knockout stage. The day after the team's elimination, it was reported by numerous media outlets that then President of France Nicolas Sarkozy would meet with team captain Thierry Henry to discuss the issues associated with the team's meltdown at the World Cup, at Henry's request. Following the completion of the World Cup tournament, Federation President Jean-Pierre Escalettes resigned from his position.

Domenech, whose contract had expired, was succeeded as head coach by former international Laurent Blanc. On 23 July 2010, at the request of Blanc, the FFF suspended all 23 players in the World Cup squad for the team's friendly match against Norway after the World Cup. On 6 August, five players who were deemed to have played a major role in the training boycott were disciplined for their roles, and Nicolas Anelka also received an 18-match ban, effectively ending the forward's international career.

At Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, France reached the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by eventual champions Spain. Following the tournament, coach Laurent Blanc resigned and was succeeded by Didier Deschamps, who captained France to glory in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. His team qualified for the 2014 World Cup by beating Ukraine in the play-offs. At the 2014 World Cup, France lost to eventual champions Germany in the quarter-finals courtesy of an early goal by Mats Hummels.

Renewed Success & Second World Cup (2016–2024)
France automatically qualified as hosts for Euro 2016, advancing to the knockout stages, where they defeated the Republic of Ireland and Iceland. In the semi-final, France defeated Germany 2–0, marking their first win over Germany at a major tournament since 1958. France, however, were beaten by Portugal 1–0 in the final courtesy of an extra-time goal by Eder.

At the 2018 World Cup, France finished top of their group to advance to the last 16. They subsequently defeated Argentina 4–3 in a thrilling match in the round of 16 and then Uruguay 2–0 to qualify for the semi-final stage, where they beat Belgium 1–0 courtesy of a goal from defender Samuel Umtiti. On 15 July, France beat Croatia in the final 4–2 to win the World Cup for the second time.

UEFA Euro 2020 was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At Euro 2020, France finished top of a group containing Germany, Portugal and Hungary, which was described by pundits as the "group of death". However, they were eliminated by Switzerland in the round of 16. The Swiss had held France to a 3–3 draw in normal time before winning on penalties. France would go on to win the 2020–21 edition of the UEFA Nations League, after winning advancement to the final tournament from a group consisting of inaugural champions Portugal. France defeated Spain 2-1 in the final for their first title.

At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, France looked to defend their title in Qatar. After finishing top of their group, France did manage to reach a second successive World Cup final, defeating Poland, England and Morocco in the knockout stages. However, they were defeated on penalties by Argentina after a thrilling 3–3 draw.

France qualified for the UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany, where they placed second in the group stage following a victory over Austria 1–0 and two draws against Netherlands (0–0) and Poland (1–1), therefore advancing to the knockout stage. They defeated Belgium 1–0 in the round of 16 and later advanced to the semifinals after defeating Portugal in penalties following a 0–0 score. At this point, France had yet to score a goal from open play, having scored previous goals from penalty kicks (Poland) or own goals (Belgium and Austria). France was later defeated by Spain 2–1 in the semifinals, this becoming their first defeat in regular time in ten years.

Home stadium
During France's early years, the team's national stadium alternated between the Parc des Princes in Paris and the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir in Colombes. France also hosted matches at the Stade Pershing, Stade de Paris, and the Stade Buffalo, but to a minimal degree. As time passed, France began hosting matches outside the city of Paris at such venues as the Stade Marcel Saupin in Nantes, the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, the Stade de Gerland in Lyon, and the Stade de la Meinau in Strasbourg. Following the renovation of the Parc des Princes in 1972, which gave the stadium the largest capacity in Paris, France moved into the venue permanently. The team still hosted friendly matches and minor World Cup and UEFA Euro qualification matches at other venues. France have played home matches in a French overseas department twice – in 2005 against Costa Rica in Fort-de-France (Martinique) and in 2010 against China in Saint Pierre (Réunion). Both matches were friendlies.

In 1998, the Stade de France was inaugurated as France's national stadium ahead of the 1998 World Cup. Located in Saint-Denis, a Parisian suburb, the stadium has an all-seater capacity of 81,338. France's first match at the stadium was played on 28 January 1998 against Spain. France won the match 1–0, with Zinedine Zidane scoring the goal. Since that match, France has used the stadium for almost every major home game, including the 1998 World Cup final.

Prior to matches, home or away, the national team trains at the INF Clairefontaine academy in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines. Clairefontaine is the national association football centre and is among 12 élite academies throughout the country. The centre was inaugurated in 1976 by former FFF president Fernand Sastre and opened in 1988. The center drew media spotlight following its usage as a base camp by the team that won the 1998 World Cup.

In the 20th and 23rd minute of an international friendly on 13 November 2015, against Germany, three groups of terrorists attempted to detonate bomb vests, at three entrances of Stade de France, and two explosions occurred. Play would continue, until the 94th minute, in order to keep the crowd from panicking. Consequently, the stadium was evacuated through the unaffected gates of the stadium away from the players benches. Due to the blocked exits, spectators who could not leave the stadium had to go down to the pitch and wait until it was safer. As a result of the attacks, both teams would remain in the stadium until the day after.

Media coverage
The national team has a broadcasting agreement with TF1 Group, who the Federal Council of the FFF agreed to extend its exclusive broadcasting agreement with the channel. The new deal grants the channel exclusive broadcast rights for the matches of national team, which include friendlies and international games for the next four seasons beginning in August 2010 and ending in June 2014. TF1 will also have extended rights, notably on the Internet, and may also broadcast images of the national team in its weekly program, Téléfoot. The FFF will receive €45 million a season, a €10 million decrease from the €55 million they received from the previous agreement reached in 2006.

After France won their second World Cup in 2018, M6 together with TF1 broadcast all international fixtures featuring France respectively until 2022.

Kits and crest
The France national team utilizes a three colour system composed of blue, white, and red. The team's three colours originate from the national flag of France, known as the tricolore. Nevertheless, the first France shirt (as seen in their first official international match against Belgium in 1904) was white, with the two interlinked rings emblem of USFSA –the body that controlled sport in France by then– on the left.

France normally wear blue shirts, white shorts, and red socks at home, while, when on the road, the team utilizes an all-white combination or white shirts and socks with blue shorts. Between 1909 and 1914, France wore a white shirt with blue stripes, white shorts, and red socks. In a 1978 World Cup match against Hungary in Mar del Plata, both teams arrived at Estadio José María Minella with white kits, so France played in green-and-white striped shirts borrowed from Club Atlético Kimberley.

Beginning in 1966, France had its shirts made by Le Coq Sportif until 1971. In 1972, France reached an agreement with German sports apparel manufacturer Adidas to be the team's kit provider. Over the next 38 years, the two would maintain a healthy relationship with France winning Euro 1984, the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 while wearing Adidas' famous tricolour three stripes. During the 2006 World Cup, France wore an all-white change strip in all four of its knockout matches, including the final. On 22 February 2008, the FFF announced that they were ending their partnership with Adidas and signing with Nike, effective 1 January 2011. The deal was valued at €320 million over seven years (1 January 2011 – 9 July 2018), making France's blue shirt the most expensive sponsorship in the history of football.

The first France kit worn in a major tournament produced by Nike was the Euro 2012 strip, which was all dark blue and used gold as an accent colour. In February 2013, Nike revealed an all baby blue change strip.

In advance of France's hosting of Euro 2016, Nike unveiled a new, unconventional kit set: blue shirts and shorts with red socks at home, white shirts and shorts and with blue socks away. The away shirt as worn in pre-Euro friendlies and released to the public also featured one blue sleeve and one red sleeve in reference to the "tricolore". However, due to UEFA regulations, France was forced to wear a modified version with the sleeve colours almost desaturated in their Euro 2016 group stage game against Switzerland, which continued to be worn during 2018 World Cup qualifying.

Nickname
France is often referred to by the media and supporters as Les Bleus (The Blues), which is the nickname associated with all of France's international sporting teams due to the blue shirts each team incorporates. The team is also referred to as Les Tricolores or L'Equipe Tricolore (The Tri-color Team) due to the team's utilization of the country's national colors: blue, white, and red. During the 1980s, France earned the nickname the "Brazilians of Europe" mainly due to the accolades of the "carré magique" ("Magic Square"), who were anchored by Michel Platini. Led by coach Michel Hidalgo, France exhibited an inspiring, elegant, skillful and technically advanced offensive style of football, which was strikingly similar to their South American counterparts. Despite being offence oriented, France's defence is considered one of the best in world for their aggression and technicality. Their defence played a vital role in winning the 2018 FIFA World Cup and had earned them the title of "Mur de fer" ("The Iron Wall").

Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results from the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

Coaching staff

 * As of March 2024.

Coaching history

 * Managers in italics were hired as caretakers.

Current squad
The following 25 players were called up for the UEFA Euro 2024.

Caps and goals as of 9 July 2024, after the match against 🇪🇸 spain.

Recent call-ups
The following players have also been called up within the past twelve months.

 * Notes
 * INJ = Withdrew due to injury
 * PRE = Preliminary squad
 * RET = Retired from the national team
 * SUS = Serving suspension

Player records

 * Players in bold are still active with France.

Competitive record
Champions  Runners-up   Third place   Tournament played on home soil

FIFA World Cup
France was one of the four European teams that participated at the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and have appeared in sixteen FIFA World Cups as of 2022. The national team is one of eight sides to have won the World Cup. France won their first World Cup title in 1998 on home soil by defeating Brazil 3–0 in the final match.

In 2006, France finished as runners-up losing 5–3 on penalties to Italy. The team has also finished in third place on two occasions in 1958 and 1986 and in fourth place once in 1982. The team's worst results in the competition were first round eliminations in 2002 and 2010. In 2002, the team suffered an unexpected loss to Senegal and departed the tournament without scoring a goal, while in 2010, a French team torn apart by conflict between the players and staff lost two of three matches and drew the other.

In 2014, France advanced to the quarter-finals before losing 1–0 to eventual champions Germany. Four years later, France defeated Croatia 4–2 in the final match and won the World Cup for the second time. In 2022, France finished runners-up to Argentina, losing 4–2 on penalties.

 * *Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.
 * **Red border indicates tournament was held on home soil.

UEFA European Championship
France is one of the most successful nations at the UEFA European Championship having won two titles in 1984 and 2000. The team is just below Spain and Germany who have won three titles each. France hosted the inaugural competition in 1960 and have appeared in eleven UEFA European Championship tournaments, tied for fourth-best. The team won their first title on home soil in 1984 and were led by Ballon d'Or winner Michel Platini. In 2000, the team, led by FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane, won its second title in Belgium and the Netherlands. The team's worst result in the competition was a first-round elimination in 1992 and 2008.
 * *Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.

UEFA Nations League

 * *Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.
 * **Group stage played home and away. Flag shown represents host nation for the finals stage.

FIFA Confederations Cup
France have appeared in two of the eight FIFA Confederations Cups contested and won the competition on both appearances. The team's two titles place in second place only trailing Brazil who have won four. France won their first Confederations Cup in 2001 having appeared in the competition as a result of winning the FIFA World Cup in 1998. The team defeated Japan 1–0 in the final match. In the following Confederations Cup in 2003, France, appearing in the competition as the host country, won the competition beating Cameroon 1–0 after extra time.

Honours

 * This is a list of honours for the senior France national team.

 * FIFA World Cup
 * Champions (2): 1998, 2018
 * Runners-up (2): 2006, 2022
 * Third place (2): 1958, 1986
 * UEFA European Championship
 * Champions (2): 1984, 2000
 * Runners-up (1): 2016
 * UEFA Nations League
 * Champions (1): 2021
 * CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions
 * Champions (1): 1985
 * FIFA Confederations Cup
 * Champions (2): 2001, 2003
 * Olympic Games
 * Champions (1): 1984
 * Runners-up (1): 1900

title: France national football team


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Flashbulb memory

A flashbulb memory is a vivid, long-lasting memory about a surprising or shocking event that has happened in the past.

The term "flashbulb memory" suggests the surprise, indiscriminate illumination, detail, and brevity of a photograph; however, flashbulb memories are only somewhat indiscriminate and are far from complete. Evidence has shown that although people are highly confident in their memories, the details of the memories can be forgotten.

Flashbulb memories are one type of autobiographical memory. Some researchers believe that there is reason to distinguish flashbulb memories from other types of autobiographical memories because they rely on elements of personal importance, consequence, emotion, and surprise. Others believe that ordinary memories can also be accurate and long-lasting if they are highly distinctive, personally significant, or repeatedly rehearsed.

Flashbulb memories have six characteristic features: place, ongoing activity, informant, own affect, other affect, and aftermath. Arguably, the principal determinants of a flashbulb memory are a high level of surprise, a high level of consequentiality, and perhaps emotional arousal.

Historical overview
The term flashbulb memory was coined by Brown and Kulik in 1977. They formed the special-mechanism hypothesis, which argues for the existence of a special biological memory mechanism that, when triggered by an event exceeding critical levels of surprise and consequentiality, creates a permanent record of the details and circumstances surrounding the experience. Brown and Kulik believed that although flashbulb memories are permanent, they are not always accessible from long-term memory. The hypothesis of a special flashbulb-memory mechanism holds that flashbulb memories have special characteristics that are different from those produced by "ordinary" memory mechanisms. The representations created by the special mechanism are detailed, accurate, vivid, and resistant to forgetting. Most of these initial properties of flashbulb memory have been debated since Brown and Kulik first coined the term. Ultimately, over the years, four models of flashbulb memories have emerged to explain the phenomenon: the photographic model, the comprehensive model, the emotional-integrative model, and the importance-driven model, additional studies have been conducted to test the validity of these models.

Positive vs. negative
It is possible for both positive and negative events to produce flashbulb memories. When the event is viewed as a positive event, individuals show higher rates of reliving and sensory imagery, and also showed having more live qualities associated with the event. Individuals view these positive events as central to their identities and life stories, resulting in more rehearsal of the event, encoding the memory with more subjective clarity.

On the other hand, events seen as negative by a person have demonstrated having used more detail-oriented, conservative processing strategies. Negative flashbulb memories are more highly unpleasant and can cause a person to avoid reliving the negative event. This avoidance could possibly lead to a reduction of emotionally intense memory. The memory stays intact in an individual who experiences a negative flashbulb memory but has a more toned-down emotional side. With negative flashbulb memories, they are seen to have more consequences.

Flashbulb memories can be produced, but do not need to be, from a positive or negative event. Studies have shown that flashbulb memories may be produced by experiencing a type of brand-related interaction. It was found that brands that are well-differentiated from competitors (for example, Build-A-Bear Workshop versus KB Toys) produced a definitional flashbulb memory, but brands lacking strongly differentiated positioning do not. These "flashbulb brand memories" were viewed very much like conventional flashbulb memories for the features of strength, sharpness, vividness, and intensity.

Methods
Research on flashbulb memories generally shares a common method. Typically, researchers conduct studies immediately following a shocking, public event. Participants are first tested within a few days of the event, answering questions via survey or interview regarding the details and circumstances regarding their personal experience of the event. Then groups of participants are tested for a second time, for example six months, a year, or 18 months later. Generally, participants are divided into groups, each group being tested at different intervals. This method allows researchers to observe the rate of memory decay, the accuracy, and the content of flashbulb memories.

Accuracy
Many researchers feel that flashbulb memories are not accurate enough to be considered their own category of memory. One of the issues is that flashbulb memories may deteriorate over time, just like everyday memories. Also, it has been questioned whether flashbulb memories are substantially different from everyday memories. A number of studies suggest that flashbulb memories are not especially accurate, but that they are experienced with great vividness and confidence. In a study conducted on September 12, 2001, 54 Duke students were tested for their memory of hearing the terrorist attack and their recall of a recent everyday event. Then, they were randomly assigned to be tested again either 7, 42 or 224 days after the event. The results showed that mean number of consistent inconsistent details recalled did not differ for flashbulb memories and everyday memories, in both cases declining over time. However, ratings of vividness, recollection and belief in the accuracy of memory declined only for everyday memories. These findings further support the claims that "flashbulb memories are not special in their accuracy but only in their perceived accuracy.”

Many experimenters question the accuracy of Flashbulb Memories, but rehearsal of the event is to blame. Errors that are rehearsed through retelling and reliving can become a part of the memory. Because Flashbulb memories happen only a single time, there are no opportunities for repeated exposure or correction. Errors that are introduced early on are more likely to remain. Many individuals see these events that create Flashbulb memories as very important and want to "never forget", which may result in overconfidence in the accuracy of the flashbulb memory. The most important thing in creating a flashbulb memory is not what occurs at the exact moment of hearing striking news, but rather what occurs after hearing the news. The role of post-encoding factors such as retelling and reliving is important when trying to understand the increase in remembrance after the event has already taken place.

Such research focuses on identifying reasons why flashbulb memories are more accurate than everyday memories. It has been documented that the importance of an event, the consequences involved, how distinct it is, personal involvement in the event, and proximity increase the accuracy of recall of flashbulb memories.

Stability over time
It has been argued that flashbulb memories are not very stable over time. A study conducted on the recollection of flashbulb memories for the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster sampled two independent groups of subjects on a date close to the disaster, and another eight months later. Very few subjects had flashbulb memories of the disaster after eight months. Considering only the participants who could recall the source of the news, ongoing activity, and place, researchers reported that less than 35% had detailed memories. Another study examining participants' memories of the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion found that although participants were highly confident about their memories of the event, their memories were not very accurate three years after the event had occurred. A third study conducted on the O. J. Simpson murder case found that although participants' confidence in their memories remained strong, the accuracy of their memories declined 15 months after the event, and continued to decline 32 months after the event.

While the accuracy of flashbulb memories may not be stable over time, confidence in the accuracy of a flashbulb memory appears to be stable over time. A study conducted on the bombing in Iraq and a contrasting ordinary event showed no difference for memory accuracy over a year period; however, participants showed greater confidence when remembering the Iraqi bombing than the ordinary event despite no difference in accuracy. Likewise, when memories for the 9/11 World Trade Center attack were contrasted with everyday memories, researchers found that after one year, there was a high, positive correlation between the initial and subsequent recollection of the 9/11 attack. This indicates very good retention, compared to a lower positive correlation for everyday memories. Participants also showed greater confidence in memory at the time of retrieval than the time of encoding.

Relation to autobiographical memory
Some studies indicate that flashbulb memories are not any more accurate than other types of memories. It has been reported that memories of high school graduation or early emotional experiences can be just as vivid and clear as flashbulb memories. Undergraduates recorded their three most vivid autobiographical memories. Nearly all of the memories produced were rated to be of high personal importance, but low national importance. These memories were rated as having the same level of consequentiality and surprise as memories for events of high national importance. This indicates that flashbulb memories may just be a subset of vivid memories and may be the result of a more general phenomenon.

When looking at flashbulb memories and "control memories" (non-flashbulb memories) it has been observed that flashbulb memories are incidentally encoded into one's memory, whereas if one wanted to, a non-flashbulb memory can be intentionally encoded in one's memory. Both of these types of memories have vividness that accompanies the memory, but it was found that for flashbulb memories, the vividness was much higher and never decreases compared to control memories, which in fact did decrease over time.

Flashbulb memory has always been classified as a type of autobiographical memory, which is memory for one's everyday life events. Emotionally neutral autobiographical events, such as a party or a barbecue, were contrasted with emotionally arousing events that were classified as flashbulb memories. Memory for the neutral autobiographical events was not as accurate as the emotionally arousing events of Princess Diana's death and Mother Teresa's death. Therefore, flashbulb memories were more accurately recalled than everyday autobiographical events. In some cases, consistency of flashbulb memories and everyday memories do not differ, as they both decline over time. Ratings of vividness, recollection and belief in the accuracy of memory, however, have been documented to decline only in everyday memories and not flashbulb memories.

The latent structure of a flashbulb memory is taxonic, and qualitatively distinct from non-flashbulb memories. It has been suggested that there are "optimal cut points" on flashbulb memory features that can ultimately divide people who can produce them from those who cannot. This follows the idea that flashbulb memories are a recollection of "event-specific sensory-perceptual details" and are much different from other known autobiographical memories. Ordinary memories show a dimensional structure that involves all levels of autobiographical knowledge, whereas flashbulb memories appear to come from a more densely integrated region of autobiographical knowledge. Flashbulb memories and non-flashbulb memories also differ qualitatively and not just quantitatively. Flashbulb memories are considered a form of autobiographical memory but involve the activation of episodic memory, where as everyday memories are a semantic form of recollections. Being a form of autobiographical recollections, flashbulb memories are deeply determined by the reconstructive processes of memory, and just like any other form of memory are prone to decay.

Importance of an event
Brown and Kulik (1977) emphasized that importance is a critical variable in flashbulb memory formation. In a study conducted by Brown and Kulik, news events were chosen so that some of them would be important to some of their subjects, but not to others. They found that when an event was important to one group, it was associated with a comparatively high incidence of flashbulb memories. The same event, when judged lower on importance by another group, was found to be associated with a lower incidence of flashbulb memory. The retelling or rehearsal of personally important events also increases the accuracy of flashbulb memories. Personally important events tend to be rehearsed more often than non-significant events. A study conducted on flashbulb memories of the Loma Prieta earthquake found that people who discussed and compared their personal stories with others repeatedly had better recall of the event compared to Atlanta subjects who had little reason to talk about how they had heard the news. Therefore, the rehearsal of personally important events can be important in developing accurate flashbulb memories. There has been other evidence that shows that personal importance of an event is a strong predictor of flashbulb memories. A study done on the flashbulb memory of the resignation of the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, found that the majority of UK subjects had flashbulb memories nearly one year after her resignation. Their memory reports were characterized by spontaneous, accurate, and full recall of event details. In contrast, a low number of non-UK subjects had flashbulb memories one year after her resignation. Memory reports in this group were characterized by forgetting and reconstructive errors. The flashbulb memories for Margaret Thatcher's resignation were, therefore, primarily associated with the level of importance attached to the event.

When Princess Diana died, it was an unexpected and surprising event. It affected people across the globe. When looking at accuracy, the importance of the event can be related to how accurate an individual's flashbulb memory is. Reports found that among British participants, no forgetting occurred over four years since the event. Events that are highly surprising and are rated as highly important to an individual may be preserved in the memory for a longer period of time, and have the qualities of recent events compared to those not as affected. If an event has a strong impact on an individual these memories are found to be kept much longer.

Consequence
It was proposed that the intensity of initial emotional reaction, rather than perceived consequence, is a primary determinant of flashbulb memories. Flashbulb memories of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan were studied, and it was found that participants had accurate flashbulb memories seven months after the shooting. Respondents reported flashbulb memories, despite low consequence ratings. This study only evaluated the consequence of learning about a flashbulb event, and not how the consequences of being involved with the event affects accuracy. Therefore, some people were unsure of the extent of injury, and most could only guess about the eventual outcomes. Two models of flashbulb memory state that the consequences of an event determines the intensity of emotional reactions. The Importance Driven Emotional Reactions Model indicates that personal consequences determine intensity of emotional reactions. The consequence of an event is a critical variable in the formation and maintenance of a flashbulb memory. These propositions were based on flashbulb memories of the Marmara earthquake. The other model of flashbulb memory, called the Emotional-Integrative model, proposes that both personal importance and consequence determine the intensity of one's emotional state. Overall, the majority of research found on flashbulb memories demonstrates that consequences of an event play a key role in the accuracy of flashbulb memories. The death of Pope John Paul II did not come as a surprise but flashbulb memories were still found in individuals who were affected. This shows a direct link between emotion and event memory, and emphasizes how attitude can play a key factor in determining importance and consequence for an event. Events being high in importance and consequence lead to more vivid and long-lasting flashbulb memories.

Distinctiveness of an event
Some experiences are unique and distinctive, while others are familiar, commonplace, or are similar to much that has gone on before. Distinctiveness of an event has been considered to be a main contributor to the accuracy of flashbulb memories. The accounts of flashbulb memory that have been documented as remarkably accurate have been unique and distinctive from everyday memories. It has been found that uniqueness of an event can be the best overall predictor of how well it will be recalled later on. In a study conducted on randomly sampled personal events, subjects were asked to carry beepers that went off randomly. Whenever the beeper sounded, participants recorded where they were, what they were doing, and what they were thinking. Weeks or months later, the participants' memories were tested. The researchers found that recall of action depends strongly on uniqueness. Similar results have been found in studies regarding distinctiveness and flashbulb memories; memories for events that produced flashbulb memories, specifically various terrorist attacks, had high correlations between distinctiveness and personal importance, novelty, and emotionality. It has also been documented that if someone has a distinctive experience during a meaningful event, then accuracy for recall will increase. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, higher accuracy for the recall of the earthquake was documented in participants who had distinctive experiences during the earthquake, often including a substantial disruption in their activity.

Personal involvement and proximity

It has been documented that people that are involved in a flashbulb event have more accurate recollections compared to people that were not involved in the event. Recollections of those who experienced the Marmara earthquake in Turkey had more accurate recollections of the event than people who had no direct experience. In this study, the majority of participants in the victim group recalled more specific details about the earthquake compared to the group that was not directly affected by the earthquake, and rather received their information about it from the news. Another study compared Californians' memories of an earthquake that happened in California to the memories of the same earthquake formed by people who were living in Atlanta. The results indicated that the people that were personally involved with the earthquake had better recall of the event. Californians' recall of the event were much higher than Atlantans', with the exception of those who had relatives in the affected area, such that they reported being more personally involved. The death of Pope John Paul II has created many Flashbulb Memories among people who were more religiously involved with the Catholic Church. The more involved someone is to a religion, city or group, the more importance and consequentiality is reported for an event. More emotions are reported, resulting in more consistent Flashbulb Memories.

A study (Sharot et al. 2007) conducted on the September 11 attacks demonstrates that proximity plays a part in the accuracy of recall of flashbulb memories. Three years after the terrorist attacks, participants were asked to retrieve memories of 9/11, as well as memories of personally selected control events from 2001. At the time of the attacks, some participants were in the downtown Manhattan region, closer to the World Trade Center, while others were in Midtown, a few miles away. The participants who were closer to downtown recalled more emotionally significant detailed memories than the Midtown participants. When looking solely at the Manhattan participants, the retrieval of memories for 9/11 were accompanied by an enhancement in recollective experience relative to the retrieval of other memorable life events in only a subset of participants who were, on average, two miles from the World Trade Center (around Washington Square) and not in participants who were, on average, 4.5 miles from the World Trade Center (around the Empire State Building). Although focusing only on participants that were in Manhattan on 9/11, the recollections of those closer to the World Trade Center were more vivid than those who were farther away. The downtown participants reported seeing, hearing, and even smelling what had happened. Personal involvement in, or proximity to, a national event could explain greater accuracy in memories because there could be more significant consequences for the people involved, such as the death of a loved one, which can create more emotional activation in the brain. This emotional activation in the brain has been shown to be involved in the recall of flashbulb memories.

Source of Information
When looking at the source of knowledge about an event, hearing the news from the media or from another person does not cause a difference in reaction, rather causes a difference in the type of information that is encoded to one's memory. When hearing the news from the media, more details about the events itself are better remembered due to the processing of facts while experiencing high levels of arousal, whereas when hearing the news from another individual a person tends to remember personal responses and circumstances.

Additionally, the source monitoring problem contributes to the recollection and memory errors of flashbulb memories. Over time, new information is encountered and this post-significant event information from other sources may replace or added to the part of information already stored in memory. Repeated rehearsal of the news in media and between individuals make flashbulb memories more susceptible to misremembering the source of information, thus leading to less recall of true details of the event. In a study done by Dutch researchers, participants were asked about an event of El Al Boeing 747 crash on apartment buildings in Amsterdam. Ten months after the accident, participants were asked if they recalled seeing the television film of the moment the plane hit the building. According to the results, over 60% of the subjects said they had seen the crash on television, although there was no television film regarding the incident. If they said yes, there were asked questions about the details of the crash and most falsely reported that they saw the fire had started immediately. This study demonstrates that adults can falsely believe that they have witnessed something they actually have not seen themselves but only heard from news or other people. Even, they can go further to report specific but incorrect details regarding the event. The error rate in this experiment is higher than usually found in flashbulb experiments since it uses a suggestive question instead of the usual neutral ‘flashbulb memory question’ and unlike in typical flashbulb memory studies, subjects are not asked how they first learned about the event which does not lead to critical consideration of possible original source. However, it demonstrates how even flashbulb memories are susceptible to memory distortion due to source monitoring errors.

Demographic differences
Although people of all ages experience flashbulb memories, different demographics and ages can influence the strength and quality of a flashbulb memory.

Age differences
In general, younger adults form flashbulb memories more readily than older adults. One study examined age-related differences in flashbulb memories: participants were tested for memory within 14 days of an important event and then retested for memory of the same event 11 months later. Even 11 months after the event occurred, nearly all the younger adults experienced flashbulb memories, but less than half of the older adults met all the criteria of a flashbulb memory. Younger and older adults also showed different reasons for recalling vivid flashbulb memories. The main predictor for creating flashbulb among younger adults was emotional connectedness to the event, whereas older adults relied more on rehearsal of the event in creating flashbulb memories. Being emotionally connected was not enough for older adults to create flashbulbs; they also needed to rehearse the event over the 11 months to remember details. Older adults also had more difficulty remembering the context of the event; the older adults were more likely to forget with whom they spoke and where events took place on a daily basis. If older adults are significantly impacted by the dramatic event, however, they could form flashbulb memories that are just as detailed as those that younger adults form. Older adults that were personally impacted by or close to September 11 recalled memories that did not differ in detail from those of younger adults. Older adults were found to be more confident in their memories than younger adults, in regards to whom they were with, where they were, and their own personal emotions at the time of hearing the news of 9/11. Older adults remembered a vast majority of events between the ages of 10 and 30, a period known as the "reminiscence bump". During that period, events occur during a time of finding one's identity and peak brain function. These events tend to be more talked about than events occurring outside this period. Flashbulb memories from the "reminiscence bump" are better remembered by older adults than are memories are having recently occurred.

Cultural variations
Generally the factors that influence flashbulb memories are considered to be constant across cultures. Tinti et al. (2009) conducted a study on memories of Pope John Paul II's death amongst Polish, Italian, and Swiss Catholics. The results showed that personal involvement was most important in memory formation, followed by proximity to the event.

Flashbulb memories differ among cultures with the degree to which certain factors influence the vividness of flashbulb memories. For example, Asian cultures tend to de-emphasize individuality; therefore Chinese and Japanese people might not be as affected by the effects of personal involvement on vividness of flashbulb memories. A study conducted by Kulkofsky, Wang, Conway, Hou, Aydin, Johnson, and Williams (2011) investigated the formation of flashbulb memories in 5 countries: China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Turkey. Overall participants in the United States and the United Kingdom reported more memories in a 5 minutes span than participants from Germany, Turkey, and China. This could simply be due to the fact that different cultures have different memory search strategies. In terms of flashbulb memories, Chinese participants were less affected by all factors related to personal closeness and involvement with the event. There were also cultural variations in effects of emotional intensity and surprise.

Gender
Some studies conducted in this area of research yielded findings indicating that women are able to produce more vivid details of events and recall autobiographical events elicited by Senate hearings than men. One such study had participants fill out questionnaires about flashbulb memories and recollections of autobiographical events pertaining to the Senate hearings that confirmed Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice (Morse, 1993). The study found that half of the individuals reported vivid memory images associated with the hearings. 64% of women reported images as opposed to 33% men. 77% of women reported having had stimulated recall of an autobiographical event, while only 27% of men indicated having experienced such recall. Women were more likely than men to report additional imagery (24% of women and 6% of men). Women were more likely than men to report vivid image memories and recall of autobiographical events elicited by the hearings, but they did not differ from men in the ratings of these memories. There was also no difference in the average amount of time spent consuming media on the hearing.

A large body of research was conducted into events taking place during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, although it was not specifically researching gender differences. In one study researchers had participants answer questions to establish "consistent flashbulb memory," which consists of details about where the participants were at the time of the attacks, what they were doing, etc. In 2002 it was found that 49% of women and 47% of men fulfilled these requirements. In 2003, this dropped to 46% of women and 44% of men (Conway, 2009). Women seemed more likely to have a more consistent memory for the event than men in this study. A longer time since the incident decreases the consistency of the memory. However, a study aimed at finding whether a series of terrorist attacks with common features elicit flashbulb memories found a different pattern of gender effects. Men rated the distinctiveness of their flashbulb-producing event higher than women did. Additionally, men had memories with more detail than women. Women however, reported higher rates of emotional reactivity.

Biological reasons for gender variances in flashbulb memory may be explained by amygdala asymmetry. The amygdala is a part of the limbic system, and is linked with memory and emotion. Memory is enhanced by emotion, and studies have shown that people are more likely to remember a negative event than a neutral or positive one. Investigations into the amygdala revealed "people who showed strong amygdala activation in response to a set of positive or negative stimuli (relative to other study participants) also showed superior memory for those stimuli (relative to other study participants)". This may explain why flashbulb memory typically involves traumatic events. When viewing emotional content, research has shown that men enhance their memory by activating their right amygdala while women activate the left side. Although it is still unclear how lateralization affects memory, there may be a more effective relationship between activation of the left amygdala and memory than activation of right and memory. Generally speaking, studies testing differences between genders on episodic memory tasks revealed that "women consistently outperform men on tasks that require remembering items that are verbal in nature or can be verbally labeled" (Herlitz, 2008). It seems that women also "excel on tasks requiring little or no verbal processing, such as recognition of unfamiliar odors or faces" (Herlitz, 2008). Men only seem to excel in memory tasks that require visuospatial processing. Gender differences are also very apparent in research on autobiographical memory. To sum up these gender differences, most literature on memory indicates that:

"Women use a greater quantity and variety of emotion words than men when describing their past experiences ... Women include not only a greater number of references to their own emotional states but also a greater number of references to the emotional states of others. In addition, when asked to recall emotional life experiences, women recall more memories of both positive and negative personal experiences than men."

Overall women seem to have better memory performance than men in both emotional and non-emotional events.

There are many problems with assessing gender differences found in the research into this topic. The clearest is that it is heavily reliant on self-reporting of events. Inaccuracy of findings could result from biased questions or participants misremembering. There is no way to completely verify the accuracy of accounts given by the subjects in a study. Additionally, there are many indications that eye-witness memory can often be fallible. Emotion does not seem to improve memory performance in a situation that involves weapons. Eyewitnesses remember fewer details about perpetrators if a weapon is involved in an event (Pickel, 2009). Accuracy in these situations is compromised by a phenomenon known as the weapon focus effect. Further complicating matters is the time frame in which people are surveyed in relation to the event as many studies survey people well after the events. Thus, there is a validity issue with much of the research into flashbulb memory in general, as well as any apparent gender differences.

Improvement
A number of studies have found that flashbulb memories are formed immediately after a life changing event happens or when news of the event is relayed. Although additional information about the event can then be researched or learned, the extra information is often lost in memory due to different encoding processes. A more recent study, examining effects of the media on flashbulb memories for the September 11, 2001 attacks, shows that extra information may help retain vivid flashbulb memories. Although the researchers found that memory for the event decreased over time for all participants, looking at images had a profound effect on participants memory. Those who said they saw images of the September 11th attacks immediately retained much more vivid images 6-months later than those who said they saw images hours after they heard about the attacks. The latter participants failed to encode the images with the original learning of the event. Thus, it may be the images themselves that lead some of the participants to recall more details of the event. Graphic images may make an individual associate more with the horror and scale of a tragic event and hence produce a more elaborate encoding mechanism. Furthermore, perhaps looking at images may help individuals retain vivid flashbulb memories months, and perhaps even years, after an event occurs.

Controversy: special mechanism hypothesis
The special-mechanism hypothesis has been the subject of considerable discussion in recent years, with some authors endorsing the hypothesis and others noting potential problems.This hypothesis divides memory processes into different categories, positing that different mechanisms underlie flashbulb memories. Yet many argue that flashbulb memories are simply the product of multiple, unique factors coalescing.

Supporting evidence
Data concerning people's recollections of the Reagan assassination attempt provide support for the special-mechanism hypothesis. People had highly accurate accounts of the event and had lost very few details regarding the event several months after it occurred. Additionally, an experiment examining emotional state and word valence found that people are better able to remember irrelevant information when they are in a negative, shocked state. There is also neurological evidence in support of a special mechanism view. Emotionally neutral autobiographical events, such as a party, were compared with two emotionally arousing events: Princess Diana's death, and Mother Teresa's death. Long-term memory for the contextual details of an emotionally neutral autobiographical event was related to medial temporal lobe function and correlated with frontal lobe function, whereas there was no hint of an effect of either medial temporal lobe or frontal lobe function on memory for the two flashbulb events. These results indicate that there might be a special neurobiological mechanism associated with emotionally arousing flashbulb memories.

Opposing evidence
Studies have shown that flashbulb memories can result from non-surprising events, such as the first Moon landing, and also from non-consequential events. While Brown and Kulik defined flashbulb memories as memories of first learning about a shocking event, they expand their discussion to include personal events in which the memory is of the event itself. Simply asking participants to retrieve vivid, autobiographical memories has been shown to produce memories that contain the six features of flashbulb memories. Therefore, it has been proposed that such memories be viewed as products of ordinary memory mechanisms. Moreover, flashbulb memories have been shown to be susceptible to errors in reconstructive processes, specifically systematic bias. It has been suggested that flashbulb memories are not especially resistant to forgetting. A number of studies suggest that flashbulb memories are not especially accurate, but that they are experienced with great vividness and confidence. Therefore, it is argued that it may be more precise to define flashbulb memories as extremely vivid autobiographical memories. Although they are often memories of learning about a shocking public event, they are not limited to such events, and not all memories of learning about shocking public events produce flashbulb memories.

The photographic model
Brown and Kulik proposed the term flashbulb memory, along with the first model of the process involved in developing what they called flashbulb accounts. The photographic model proposes that in order for a flashbulb account to occur in the presence of a stimulus event, there must be, a high level of surprise, consequentiality, and emotional arousal. Specifically, at the time in which an individual first hears of an event, the degree of unexpectedness and surprise is the first step in the registration of the event. The next step involved in registration of flashbulb accounts is the degree of consequentiality, which in turn, triggers a certain level of emotional arousal. Brown and Kulik described consequentiality as the things one would imagine may have gone differently if the event had not occurred, or what consequences the event had on an individual's life. Further, Brown and Kulik believed that high levels of these variables would also result in frequent rehearsal, being either covert ("always on the mind") or overt (ex. talked about in conversations with others). Rehearsal, which acts as a mediating process in the development of a flashbulb account, creates stronger associations and more elaborate accounts. Therefore, the flashbulb memory becomes more accessible and vividly remembered for a long period of time.

Comprehensive model
Some researchers recognized that previous studies of flashbulb memories are limited by the reliance on small sample groups of few nationalities, thus limiting the comparison of memory consistency across different variables. The comprehensive model was born out of similar experimentation as Brown and Kulik's, but with a larger participant sample. One major difference between the two models is that the Photographic Model follows more of a step-by-step process in the development of flashbulb accounts, whereas the Comprehensive Model demonstrates an interconnected relationship between the variables. Specifically, knowledge and interest in the event affects the level of personal importance for the individual, which also affects the individual's level of emotional arousal (affect). Furthermore, knowledge and interest pertaining to the event, as well as the level of importance, contribute to the frequency of rehearsal. Therefore, high levels of knowledge and interest contribute to high levels of personal importance and affect, as well as high frequency of rehearsal. Finally, affect and rehearsal play major roles in creating associations, thus enabling the individual to remember vivid attributes of the event, such as the people, place, and description of the situation.

Emotional-integrative model
An Emotional-Integrative Model of flashbulb memories integrates the two previously discussed models the Photographic Model and the Comprehensive Model. Similar to the Photographic Model, the Emotional-Integrative Model states that the first step toward the registration of a flashbulb memory is an individual's degree of surprise associated with the event. This level of surprise triggers an emotional feeling state, which is also a result of the combination of the level of importance (consequentiality) of the event to the individual, and the individual's affective attitude. The emotional feeling state of the individual directly contributes to the creation of a flashbulb memory. To strengthen the association, thus enabling the individual to vividly remember the event, emotional feeling state and affective attitude contribute to overt rehearsal (mediator) of the event to strengthen the memory of the original event which, in turn, determines the formation of a flashbulb memory. According to the Emotional-Integrative model flashbulb memories can also be formed for expected events. The formation of flashbulb memories in this case depends greatly on a high emotional relationship to the event and rehearsal of the memory.

Importance-driven emotional reactions model
This model emphasizes that personal consequences determine intensity of emotional reactions. These consequences are, therefore, critical operators in the formation and maintenance of flashbulb memories. This model was based on whether traumatic events were experienced or not during the Marmara earthquake. According to the findings of this study, the memories of the people who experienced the earthquake were preserved as a whole, and unchanged over time. Results of the re-test showed that the long-term memories of the victim group are more complete, more durable and more consistent than those of the comparison group. Therefore, based on this study, a new model was formed that highlights that consequences play a very large role in the formation of flashbulb memories.

Compared to traumatic memories
Flashbulb memories are engendered by highly emotional, surprising events. Flashbulb memories differ from traumatic events because they do not generally contain an emotional response. Traumatic memories involve some element of fear or anxiety. While flashbulb memories can include components of negative emotion, these elements are generally absent.

There are some similarities between traumatic and flashbulb memories. During a traumatic event, high arousal can increase attention to central information leading to increased vividness and detail. Another similar characteristic is that memory for traumatic events is enhanced by emotional stimuli. An additional, a difference between the nature of flashbulb memories and traumatic memories is the amount of information regarding unimportant details that will be encoded in the memory of the event. In high-stress situations, arousal dampens memory for peripheral information—such as context, location, time, or other less important details. To rephrase, flashbulb memories are described as acute awareness of where a person was and what they were doing when a significant or traumatic event occurred, and are not characterized by strong emotion, while traumatic memories are accompanied by highly negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, and panic when the related event is recalled.

Amygdala
Laboratory studies have related specific neural systems to the influence of emotion on memory. Cross-species investigations have shown that emotional arousal causes neurohormonal changes, which engage the amygdala. The amygdala modulates the encoding, storage, and retrieval of episodic memory. These memories are later retrieved with an enhanced recollective experience, similar to the recollection of flashbulb memories. The amygdala, therefore, may be important in the encoding and retrieval of memories for emotional public events. Since the role of the amygdala in memory is associated with increased arousal induced by the emotional event, factors that influence arousal should also influence the nature of these memories. The constancy of flashbulb memories over time varies based on the individual factors related to the arousal response, such as emotional engagement and personal involvement with the shocking event. The strength of amygdala activation at retrieval has been shown to correlate with an enhanced recollective experience for emotional scenes, even when accuracy is not enhanced. Memory storage is increased by endocrine responses to shocking events; the more shocking an individual finds an event, the more likely a vivd flashbulb memory will develop.

There has been considerable debate as to whether unique mechanisms are involved in the formation of flashbulb memories, or whether ordinary memory processes are sufficient to account for memories of shocking public events. Sharot et al. found that for individuals who were close to the World Trade Center, the retrieval of 9/11 memories engaged neural systems that are uniquely tied to the influence of emotion on memory. The engagement of these emotional memory circuits is consistent with the unique limbic mechanism that Brown and Kulik suggested. These are the same neural mechanisms, however, engaged during the retrieval of emotional stimuli in the laboratory. The consistency in the pattern of neural responses during the retrieval of emotional scenes presented in the laboratory and flashbulb memories suggests that even though different mechanisms may be involved in flashbulb memories, these mechanisms are not unique to the surprising and consequential nature of the initiating events.

Evidence indicates the importance of the amygdala in the retrieval of 9/11 events, but only among individuals who personally experienced these events. The amygdala's influence on episodic memory is explicitly tied to physiological arousal. Although simply hearing about shocking public events may result in arousal, the strength of this response likely varies depending on the individual's personal experience with the events.

Critique of research
Flashbulb memory research tends to focus on public events that have a negative valence. There is a shortage on studies regarding personal events such as accidents or trauma. This is due to the nature of the variables needed for flashbulb memory research: the experience of a surprising event is hard to manipulate. Also, it is very hard to conduct experiments on flashbulb memories due to lack of control over the events. In an empirical study, it is very difficult to control the rehearsal amount.

Some researchers also argue that the effect of rehearsal factors on individual memory is different with respect to the availability of the mass media across different societies.

title: Flashbulb memory