Farm Hats and Early Memories
By Sarah Young
This is me when I was about 7 months old. Sometimes I like to think that I can actually remember sitting in that plastic lined car seat wearing my dad’s grease-soaked hat. Of course, research shows us that is not probable and my recollections are most likely attributed to my parents telling me how I always used to wear my dad’s hats and work boots. When we think back to our first memories perhaps images of a party or scenes from a family vacation come to mind. Now think about your age when that event occurred. Chances are the earliest recollection extends no further back than your third birthday. In fact, a handful of your early memories might be hard to recall without the help of family photo albums or stories from your parents. How do we discern whether the earliest memory we have is an accurate representation of something that happened or simply attributed to what we have been told?
When you think of your earliest memory, what comes to mind? Do you believe it is a true memory or something your mind created based on what you have been told or a picture you’ve seen? It is common for people to claim they can remember events from infancy and early childhood but in reality, is quite unlikely. For many people, they have been told things that they then go on to remember as them actually experiencing. Your parents telling you specific details about your birth-that might lead you to fill in the rest.
Research has long established that as adults we cannot accurately retrieve memories from our infancy and early childhood. To put it simply, the brains of babies are not yet physiologically capable of forming and storing long-term memories. And yet many people seem to have such memories anyway, and are often convinced that they are accurate because they can see no other plausible origin for these recollections. When we then place this information into seemingly appropriate contexts, such as a retelling of an early life event, we can unintentionally fill in our memory gaps, and make up details. Our brains piece together information fragments in ways that make sense to us and which can therefore feel like real memories.
Parents also have an effect on kids’ memories of events. Those who use an elaborative strategy with their little ones, asking a lot of questions like, “tell me more” and “what happened?” and allowing the kids to guide the description, end up with kids that have earlier and more robust memories (Gammon, 2014). Consider what a child’s memories might look like when prompted with, “what do you remember about playing outside as a child?” compared to “do you remember when you fell in the mud and it was really cold out?”.
So what about the people who are convinced they have memories as early as birth? There are accounts of people who specifically remember coming out of the birth canal. In fact, if you Google “I remember being born” there are 767 million results with the first result describing it as being cold and angry. If people can remember details about being born like how cold it was or how bright it was then surely their memories must be accurate? Researchers think otherwise. The term “childhood amnesia” describes the phenomenon of children not being able to retain long-term memories before the age of 3. Part of this is due to the inability of a young child’s brain to create those memories. Researchers discuss one likely contributing factor is the immaturity of the infant nervous system (Usher & Neisser, 1993). The hippocampus, for example, is not fully developed at birth. We know that the hippocampus is involved with adult episodic memory so the late maturation of this structure may play a role in childhood amnesia. Another factor responsible for childhood amnesia may be due to a barrier in language. If babies could talk right from birth would our understanding and beliefs about their memories change?
My daughter likes to tell a story about when she was 3 months old and as her daddy was playfully throwing her in the air, she spit up on his face. Similar to me recalling the feel of the plastic car seat and smell of my dad’s greasy farm hat, my daughter can describe the feeling of being thrown in the air and the taste when she spit up. She tells it with specific details and relish as though she remembers it clearly. Her recollection of this event is most likely built off of her dad and I telling her about how it happened. Childhood amnesia is a phenomenon that explains why it is highly unlikely we can recall memories prior to the age of 3. Research is continuously evolving on this topic and how helpful would it be if babies were born already talking!
References
Gammon, K. (2014, January 31). Birth of Memory: Why Kids Forget What Happened Before Age 7. Retrieved June 2020, from https://www.popsci.com/blog-network/kinderlab/birth-memory-why-kids-forget-what-happened-age-7/
Haynes, G. (2019, September 23). The Adults Who Remember Being Born. Retrieved June 2020, from https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/43/kned/i-remember-being-born
Shaw, J. (2016). The Memory Illusion: Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory, Random House Books, London.
Usher, J. A., & Neisser, U. (1993). Childhood Amnesia and the Beginnings of Memory for Four Early Life
Events. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122(2), 155-165. Doi; 10.1037/0096-3445.122.2.155