The aircrafts and the location where they crashed:

i. American Airlines Flight 11 – North Tower of WTCii. United Airlines Flight 175 – South Tower of WTCiii. American Airlines Flight 77 - western side of the

Pentagoniv. United Airlines Flight 93 – Shanksville, Pennsylvania

The mastermind behind this was Osama-bin-laden andthis attack provoked the US Govt. to launch a full-fledgedoffensive against him.

News footage showing AA 11 and UAL 175 crashing into the WTC

This is a tale of 2 people, Stanley and Brian.

Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark aresurvivors of the 9/11 attacks on the WorldTrade Centre.

On that day while Stanley was in his office, hesaw a United Airlines jet (UAL 175) headingdirectly towards him.

He was helped by Brian Clark, an executivewho was coming down from the 84th floor.

Brian

Stanley

8

A flashbulb memory is a highly detailed, vivid'snapshot' of a moment in which a piece of surprisingor emotionally arousing news was heard/seen. Thesememories are very accurate and are resistant toforgetting.

Four Questions are currently usedto define a flashbulb memory(from Brown & Kulik’s original six):

• Where?• Who?• How?• What?

A “flashbulb memory” is said to occur when a subject accurately recalls at least 3 of the 4 answers to the questions.

Aim: Investigate upon the existence ofFlashbulb memory in9/11 witnesses

Procedure :

• 24 witnesses of the 9/11 incident were recruited as subjects from different places indowntown and midtown Manhattan.

• Sharot asked them to remember the attacks and a random event from another summer.

• She used a brain scanner, specifically a fMRI, to map the changes in their brain whilethey were recalling their past summers and the 9/11 attacks.

Findings:• People closer to the place had a more in-depth recall of the event.

• When compared to subject’s summer holiday, the level of detail given for 9/11 incidentwas higher.

• The parahippocampal gyrus, which is responsible for LTM retrieval, was relatively inactivewhen recalling memories of 9/11 as compared to recalling events from summer holiday.

• Amygdala (responsible for processing memory of emotional reaction) was relatively moreactive when recalling memories from 9/11.

• People from downtown reported seeing the towers “burning in red flames”, smelling thesmoke and hearing “the cries of people”.

Conclusion & Evaluation:

• Different parts of the brain were used for Flashbulb memory retrieval and LTM retrieval.

• Valid research since questions were asked about real-life situations.

• It was seen that distance or proximity played an important role in the formation of flashbulb memories(Downtown witnesses vs Midtown witnesses).

• People didn’t have to think too much when asked to recall about 9/11. However it took them a considerableamount of time when they were asked to recall their summer holiday.

• Flashbulb memories were very accurate even 36 weeks after the 9/11 attacks which proves that they areresistant to forgetting/decay.