How Accurate are Our Memories of 9/11?: Scientific American

[Oneironaut Zero]

Just an article talking about how memories about where and when certain details happened can change over time. Thought I'd share. http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...emory-accuracy

[Xei]

Link is to the second page, for fellow confuseds. Didn't find the article that interesting personally, or very clear. I think the basic message is that people are better at remembering the important details of emotive events but are averagely good at specifics. I was 10 when it happened... I remember coming home from school and putting the telly on, and of course it was all footage of the burning towers. I told my mum to come see because I could vaguely tell it was important (it was on all channels), but I didn't really understand it.

[snoop]

I was nine when it happened. Most people tell me they heard about it in school, but my school didn't tell us anything or even mention that anything big was happening. When I got home, my sister was sitting on the couch and told me to look at the news. On the TV was the image of one of the towers with smoke billowing out of it. I didn't really understand what was going on until a day later when things were explained a bit more, but that's really all I remember.

[DeletePlease]

I was in fourth grade when it happened, one of my friends told me about as we were waiting outside our classroom waiting for the bell to ring. I didn't really care back then and I still don't. I mean, it's tragic that so many people lost their lives and whatnot but for the most part I'm just like "shit happens."

[saltyseedog]

I was driving to school and heard about on the radio in second grade. I felt all silly and hyper that day.

[khh]

I was 11 when it happened. I recall being at home, and there being pictures of the burning tower or towers on the television. I think I recall my father watching it and my mother being in the kitchen. I don't know who explained to me what happened, or how, but I do know that we talked about it at school, and I think it had been explained to me before that.

[Descensus]

4th grade, teacher got pulled out and told what happened, came back and told us even though she wasn't supposed to, came home, saw the news coverage, don't remember much more than that.

[Savy]

I was in South Korea, I think 8 years old, playing in the playground. Some kids were making fun of me saying the "statue of liberty" got blown up (I was the only American at the school, so I got picked on a bit). I didn't know what they were talking about, but our school called a moment of silence and my mom picked me up early and explained what was going on. I didn't really get it until much later.

[ThePreserver]

3rd grade, same as most of the others. The teachers were all out of their classrooms walking around the school, talking, some had radios on but they told them to turn the radios off. We continued with the day "as normal" but some kids were excused early when their parents came in to pick them up. I actually heard about what happened when I got home.

[Darkmatters]

Then as now I slept in the day, so I woke up and heard some weird things on the radio, but no mention of what actually happened - just things like "This is so awful... I still can't believe it". I knew it was something horrific and massively tragic, but had no idea what it was. So I switched on the TV. On every channel I saw people running around the streets of NYC covered in white ash or powder and crying. I saw smoke behind them but was still in the dark about what had actually happened. When I saw the image of the burning tower for a long time I couldn't tell what it was... it just looked like an abstract image to me. I think I even literally said out loud "What is it?" I saw the image over and over but couldn't understand what it was, until finally some commentator said something about airplanes smashing into the twin towers. As it dawned on me what had happened I choked up and my eyes welled up with tears.