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LiveScience
Most adults suffer from childhood amnesia, unable to remember infancy or toddlerhood. That's what scientists thought. But a new study indicates that even six years after the fact, a small percentage of tots as young as 2 can recall a unique event.
"We are interested in looking at young children's memory because of what it can tell us about memory in general," study researcher Fiona Jack, of the University of Otago, in New Zealand, told LiveScience. "Most of us can't recall anything about infancy, it's only at about 3- or 4-years of age we can start to remember."
There are plenty of anecdotal cases of very early memories, but hard evidence of unperturbed long-held early childhood memories are hard to come by — most memories from infancy are big life events, ones that would be discussed in detail long after the fact. These long-after-the-fact discussions probably strengthened and warped the natural memory.
"There will be some people who claim to remember things from 8- or 12-months old," Jack said. "It's really difficult to know for any given person if that is a genuine memory, or is it partly due to reconstruction through the stories your parents have told and pictures of the event."
The researchers devised a "magical" contraption to catch the attention of children in their study, called the Magic Shrinking Box. The kids put a toy in the top, cranked a lever and a mini version of the toy popped out at the bottom, with an accompaniment of sounds and lights. The researchers trained 46 of their 27-to-51-month-old participants for two days in a row, showing them how to use the machine.
On the third day the kids were asked about the box, how to use it, if they remembered it. This day-three interview was repeated six years later, when the kids were around 10 to 12. Before mentioning the words "Magic Shrinking Box" the researchers first showed the kids a medal they received after participating, asking if they remembered why they got it. Their parents were also interviewed at that time.
Only about a fifth of the children were able to recall the Magic Shrinking Box six years after playing with it, but interestingly this wasn't stratified by age, the researchers said. Even two of the youngest kids, who were under 3-years-old at the time they were engaged with the machine, were able to remember. Half of the adults remembered the game and how it worked.
The researchers then looked to see if any personality characteristics stood out amongst those kids who did remember. They looked at things like language skills and their general memory abilities. The researchers didn't find any indications that any particular personality trait impacted which kids remembered.
What they did see from the parent interviews was that kids who remembered had spent lots of time, from days to weeks, talking about the box after the researchers left. One even awaited the researchers' return with a vigil by the front door. This indicates that talking about the event shortly after it occurred may have helped to preserve it in the children's memories.
We did find that on average, children who remembered the events six years later talked about it more when it happened," Jack told LiveScience. "Actively engaging in conversation could have helped memory development in general and about this particular event."
The study was published Dec. 22 in the journal Child Development.
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My memory has been verified to at least 1 year old by my faher! A major blow up at bbq at a new house.
Yeah, I remember my baby brother coming home from the hospital when I was 2. This news article is of no shock to me. My son is the same way. He remembers people he met once or twice when he was 2. He is also very talkative and speaks multiple languages.
Ditto. My brother was born when I was two. I remember looking through the hospital window and waving at my mom when my aunt was holding me up. I also remember laying in my crib looking up at my mobile. I could even describe the mobile and the crib to my parents and they got rid of those when I was 1 1/2 years old. No pictures of it exist as they didn't own a camera back then.
My oldest memory is far earlier than 12 months. I remember going to a drive in with my dad and going home with my mother.
Most of my very early memories would be hard to place exactly when, things like sitting on mom's lap being read to, Dad coming home in his uniform with his duffle bag. These memories may even be composites of repeated simular events.
Because we moved when I was three, I can definitely place a few memoriesas age three or before, but not more specific. But, I was less than two when a giant black dog walked up to the swing I was sitting in at the park and bit me. Mom always refused to talk about it other than confirm it happened and add I wasn't hurt bad because I was wearing thick training pants. When I was almost grown, I decided to ask my brother if he was there. He was and his description confirmed my memories of what happened and what the dog looked like. This event left a lasting fear of dogs, which I never totally overcome.
I am still trying to remember the last time i got laid.
I remember still being in diapers and sleeping in a crib. However, I cannot recall a time before I was walking, so my memories go back to between 1 and 2.
I can describe the house I lived in before the age of 2 in great detail. Remembered getting spanked at daycare under 18 months of age as well as the layout of parts of that house. I just wish I could remember that sandusky fellow rhythmically slapping me as a teen so I could get paid millions.
I have a number of memories from before I was 1. Most are mundane, like sitting in a high chair watching my mom bake, rolling the dough. I remember my sippie cup. I remember laying in my crib watching the humidifiar spew steam- it was freaky. I remember our neighbor's dog. I remember a "Charles Chips" can I used t crawl to in the kitchen
I have about a dozen what I consider 'frozen' memories from around 18 - 36 months. I think that they are more like memories of having remembered them when I was around 4 - 12 years old and then continued to remember that I'd remembered them over the years. If that makes sense to anyone.
i was 20 months old when pearl harbor happened and i can remember my mother calling out the window at him. just a minute or two. asked my mother about as an adult and she confirmed it happened.
I would think that emotional engagement would play a large part in memory-making, and that verbalization is something a child would do when an event had created an emotional response, at least as far as a pleasant one was concerned. Those who didn't talk about it probably just thought "meh" about the experience. I understand that in order to establish the making of a memory, the experience had to be verified shortly afterwards, something that couldn't be done very well if the child had little or no verbal ability to describe it. But that doesn't mean a younger child couldn't remember it.
Personally, I have a couple of visceral recollections of pleasurable moments before the age of two, possibly before one. One involved playing with a feature of my crib, the other, teething on a particular piece of furniture. Life was so simple then.
I remember chewing on my crib too
I remember going to Disney World when I was 2. While a lot is vague and strengthened by talking about it like the article suggests, I can clearly remember some minute and mundain details about the trip. I also remember shopping for my "big girl" bedroom set at about the same age. I'm not sure which one came first. I remember sitting in my stroller wandering around all of these huge pieces of furniture at a tent sale. That's kind of a lame memory!
Three-year-old experiencing a moment of self-awareness.
That is a very strong memory for me too. I remember exactly where I was standing in the house when I had that realization.
People were always skeptical when I told them I could remember the day my parents brought my little brother home from the hospital, even though I could describe the room, the two people visiting from Florida, and where the bassinet was placed. I was a few months less than three.
Memories for me go back to before I could control my movements. The first time I recognized I had a hand and trying to control the movement, very tiring. The first time my Great Uncle met me and a few other moments before I was mobile. Sitting in a high chair being fed baby food. Realizing that hands were for touching other people. The first time I remember feeling sunlight around 1 year old (Had to be. My birthday is in November, It was cold, I was wrapped in a blanket, and angry that my hands were stuck inside.). My adopted cousin 6 months younger than me and still unable to move in a crib. Of course none of it is verifiable but I feel very comfortable knowing that my life actually started then.
I can remember a few things from before I turned 2, including the minister that left before I was 18 months old. For years, I was certain that I was remembering a later experience, but my mom told me he had never visited again, and given that he was the ONLY member to wear a blue robe with a red stole...well...it's him! I also remember wearing a raincoat I outgrew before I was 2, and my 2nd birthday cake. THAT one is probably helped along by the pictures, but I do remember it! I'm glad I have a long memory and a good one :)
I was 2 and remembered swinging in a hammock. Confirmed by my mom. It's weird, but I can remember things that my older brother couldn't. It would be interesting to see if girls have better recall than boys.
When I told my mother I remembered being born, she scoffed and said nobody could remember that. I told her I could tell her what she said as my head was emerging. She cried out, "You're hurting me! You're hurting me!" When I relayed that, she laughed and said, "Oh, yeah. That g*d d@amned nurse had her elbow on my foot!"
This memory was elicited by a therapist. When the recall began, I felt a tightness like a bungee cord wrapped tightly around my head that was rolling down toward my shoulders. Then the rest of the memory turned on and I knew that I had found the memory of my own birth.
I also recovered a vivid memory of standing on the side of a volcano (Asoyama) in Japan when I was a year and a half old. My father was stationed there after World War II.
YES! I am so happy to find this article! What a validation! I, also, can remember when I was born......Very bright lights, blurry dark figures and an unpleasant chemical odor and the sting of the slap. Not a very pleasant experience! The next time I smelled a similar odor was the first time I went to the dentist. In 1985 when I returned to Wisconsin from Florida after 10 years, My mom and I were reminiscing and I described how she would wrap me in that orange blanket so that the corner of the blanket would fall over my face then take me over to the babysitters house in winter. She said " you remember that? You were less than a year old!" I thought everyone could remember stuff like that up until that time. I was born in 1945. I remember something about every year since I was born.
I remember being at the hospital when my sister was born and she's only 18 months younger than me. After that there is a big gap though...
My middle child insists she has very clear memories of when she saw her little sister for the first time at the hospital. She was only 2.
Someone slapped me on the ass and said, "It's a boy!"
Don't remember most of my childhood, but my earliest memory is at about 18 months. I was in the hospital and woke up screaming for my mom. I remember a nurse coming in (remember the hat shape), picking me up and rocking me back to sleep.
This is news? I can't top many of the other comments, but I have a very clear memory of something that happened at 22 months that would never have been described to me.
It's not called "infantile amnesia" and it is not new. Basically you can't remember anything from before you can process language.
Ben Birdsey---
I don't think that's entirely accurate. All of my children, when they began speaking, spoke of events that ocurred BEFORE they could talk.
I'm wondering if you mean "process language" or "produce language." There's a difference between "processing language" and "producing language."
Just because a child isn't speaking doesn't mean that child isn't "processing" language. Children who aren't producing words, themselves, constantly demonstate they understand language, which would be "processing" language. They demonstrate they understand by following commands.
Although as older children and adults we use language to describe memories, not all memories are language oriented. I remember hearing a theory that many of our early memories are strongly tied into emotions, both positive and negative ones. It is possible that preverbal memories are there, but that we just can no longer access them easily most of the time.
As a young adult, I visited a church we had attended when I was one. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, including me, I said "the piano is on the wrong side." Sure enough, the piano had indeed been on the opposite side 20+ years before. To actually be in the church again apparently allowed me to access that memory.
My mother had malaria when she was about one. The rest of her life, she insisted she remembered the taste of quinine as the unique taste apparently created a very vivid memory. She said nothing else was both as sweet (they must have been adding something to sweeten it) and as bitter (it's natural flavor) all at the same time.
Not true. I have two early memories from before I could walk or talk. One is the pattern of water stains on the ceiling above my crib. The other was from being carried from my crib by my aunt to be bathed in the sink.
The experiential evidence does not trump careful scientific examination, but it is more likely that you are experiencing one of two common brain strategies:
Until you can positively eliminate these two possibilities, your evidence is weak.
I was not told anything, by anyone, no stories, no dreams.... (In fact my family did not talk about anything like this at all, my mom never discussed memories or feelings to me ever, she was old school big time).
I felt this and experienced it. So emotions and touch must play a huge part in this. I do not believe that I or anyone else was born an empty shell. We still do not know how the brain processes everything, in fact we are still discovering wonderful things about our how our brains work every single day.
I will keep my mind open to matters such as this. If I close it off..... I stop learning!
I have no memories that early...it is all a blur....but my kids who are aged 8, 12, and 13 can remember events as early as 2 years old.
Did you have a traumatic early childhood? I know someone who grew up in an alcoholic abusive home who claims he has no memories before about 7 or 8. Ironically, he actually thinks there is something wrong with everyone who has early memories from their preschool years.
That's interesting, EAE. Physical trauma such as a car accident does tend to block recall of such events for the people who are involved in a very injurous event. Thanks for sharing that. Pain prevents recall (sort of temporary amnesia).
I was born in November. I learned the word snow, and it's verb form around the time of my first birthday. My earliest memory is waking up and looking out the window and saying it's snowing, recalling the word from the previous winter. I don't remember the first part, but I definitely remember the second around the time I turned 2.
You can actually start learning while you are still in the womb. But initially your brain uses a primitive form of memory which relies upon a primitive format which your subconscious brain always retains access to. Somewhere around 18 months of life a number of key important changes occur to you developing brain, and this includes your brain switching over to a more advanced multimedia memory system for storing memory. However, it is possible to still recover this primitive memory in a conscious way, at least with a lot of effort, and quite often in your sleep. I had a very vivid dream of a turbulent, storm tossed commercial flight which I took at the age of 6 weeks old, when I had leave my mother and go stay with my grandparents at Wright Patterson Air Force base back in 1951. My grandmother was holding me in her arms aboard this flight, and I was staring out the round window where there was bright lightning flashing through through the window. My grandmother confirmed the details of this dream and she said the flight was a nightmare, especially since she could not stop me from crying through much of the flight. (At that point my grandmother was a total stranger to me.) But with great effort over the years, I have even remembered detailed discussions which my grandfather had with my grandmother in my presence while living at Wright Patterson Air Force base leading up to the age of two. But before the age of 18 months old the memory is a lot like a tape recorder (albeit a primitive tape recorder), since the discrimination circuits which normally filter out what is unimportant have not become operational yet in our brains. It is only as your more advanced memory takes over around the age of 18 months old that your brain's discrimination circuits which govern what your brain does eventually remember begin to develop and gradually take over. - Rick Carter
PARTIAL REPRINT - "You can actually start learning while you are still in the womb. But initially your brain uses a primitive form of memory which relies upon a primitive format, which your subconscious brain always retains access to. Somewhere around 18 months of life a number of key important changes occur to your developing brain, and this includes your brain switching over to a more advanced multimedia memory format for storing conscious memory, or memory which your conscious brain to one degree or another (depending upon the person) is generally able to access." - Rick Carter
I was 2 when mom and my grandmother had a huge fight (mom had left my father and we were living there). I remember the fight and mom leaving. Then mom moved out and into an apartment with a bunch of other young females with kids. I didn't like sharing my stuff.
I also remember my uncle putting a glow in the dark skeleton in my crib and telling me to go to bed, of course it scared me.
I have a lot of memories from as early as 2. Didn't think that was abnormal.
I have many many clear memories back to when I was just a few weeks old. Things like being christened in church, being held by my mother, etc. I also remember crying and not being aware that it was me doing it. And a kind of "high" feeling when being held by my mother that I didn't feel again until I was given aspirin with codeine for a bad shoulder.
-Ricky
I busted my head open and had to have stitches when I was 2. I remember most of it pretty clearly. Earliest memories are absolutely from the year I was two. This isn't news at all. Most people I know have memories from age 2.
me too! i remember being in the car with my mom holding a towel to my head, and then the yellow ceramic tiles on the walls in the hospital and that the light was very bright.
I can remember being spoon fed in a high chair (that stuff tasted terrible!). I can remember being in a crib. I can remember my parents fighting (they were divorced when I was 3). So not much really, but I certainly remember a couple of things that happened to me.
I don't remember how old I was, but I'm sure I wasn't 23. My first memory was being on a front porch swing that came loose from the ceiling. The swing went backwards and I hit my head on the brick wall. I seem to recall not getting stitches but having some kind of metal clamp put in my head. I'm not even sure if this is what doctors would do. I don't remember the metal clamp being taken out, although it's not there now.
Yes, they have previously experimented with stapling wounds together with metal staples which use a special device to remove. But generally speaking it was never favored by many doctors, and today it is mostly preferred for major abdominal surgery in conjunction with large surgical wounds. - RC
PS - Your wording actually leads me to think that you suffered a form of traumatic brain injury and post injury amnesia when your head hit the brick wall. I am guessing that you also suffered a serious concussion, which may have easily gone undiagnosed at the time, especially if you were very young. You often have to rely upon the memory of others in this kind of situation, in only to narrow down the time element of your previous injury. But doctor's records can also provide accurate dating as well. - RC
If they where anything like the other 14 as a family I don't care to remember.
I have a series of memories that are still VERY vivid to me even now, at 49 years of age. My Mother, older brother, (by one year), Papa, and myself were visiting this very old woman in a room. She was laying in a bed and the posts to the bed were square on top, silver in color, and had this little white button that you could push down on - and when you let go of it, it would spring right back up. I remember playing with that button while the adults chatted with the old lady.
There was another room close by that was very large and had a lot of furniture and a piano in. I vividly recall my brother banging on the piano and an old lady, (not the one in the bed), coming over and yelling at him to leave it alone. She also slapped his hand and my mother got very mad at her. I remember my Papa, (Mother's father), coming over and cuddling me because I started crying because it scared me watching this old lady hit my brother.
The room with the piano had a very large window. You could look out the window and see a big fountain with scary looking, (to a toddler), things on it. I remember Papa taking me outside and showing me that the scary things were stone and could not hurt me, (they were gargoyles).
About 10 years ago, I asked my mother about these memories. I wanted to know if they were real. I described the old lady, the bed with the buttons, the piano incident, and the fountain in front of the building. Turned out that her grandmother had been in a nursing home while recovering from a broken hip and that we went to see her at least once a week. That nursing home had a fountain in front of it that had stone gargoyles on it.
My great grandmother passed away of pneumonia when I was 18 months old. She was released from the nursing home when I was 15 months old. So I could have been no older than 15 months when these memories were formed.