A man vividly and confidently recalls exactly where he was when he heard about a major national event twenty years ago, but when an old diary entry from the actual day is later found, several key details turn out to be inaccurate. Before revealing the answer: does this inaccuracy mean it wasn't a genuine flashbulb memory?
No, this does not disqualify it as a flashbulb memory. As the phenomenon's own text notes, flashbulb memories are not immune to fading or distortion over time despite feeling exceptionally accurate — the gap between strong subjective confidence and actual accuracy is itself a defining and clinically relevant feature of this phenomenon, not evidence that the memory doesn't qualify as one.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Ch. 5, 'Disorders of Memory'.