Eysenck and Keane (1997) proposed that it may reflect the fact that most people develop a stable self-concept around adolescence. Therefore, their general approach and outlook on life as, say, a 70-year-old, may in many ways be similar to that in early adulthood, and these similarities help in the retrieval of memories. The lack of a stable self-concept before adolescence deters later recall. Also, adolescence and early adulthood are a time associated with much change. There are many new and personally relevant events for example jobs, marriage birth of children, etc, and hence these events are especially memorable. .
Therefore I can conclude that before the age of 10 years memory is less reliable than between the age of 15 and 25 years. However, long after this age memory reliability declines. Nevertheless whatever the age, significant events, which took place between the 15 and 25 years, are the most accurate and reliable memories which one holds in their autobiographical memory. .
Some events in life stand out with distinct vividness and clarity in our memory. Sometimes people are able to report a very detailed description of: who they were with, where they were and what they were doing at the time of some dramatic event (such as the death of Princess Diana). Brown and Kulik (1977) named these kinds of memories flashbulb memories. They put forward that emotional and surprising events, which are personally important, might automatically become fixed in memory by some special, neural mechanism. Brown and Kulik suggested that flashbulb memories are different from other memories in that they are so clear, long lasting, detailed and accurate. However it is possible that improved recall may simple be a product of thinking more about a memorable event rather than a special neurological mechanism. .
I can therefore conclude that the reliability of ones memories, when related to a dramatic event (flashbulb memories) is very high and accurate.