Childhood amnesia in children and adolescents: Their earliest memories

Abstract

Investigations of childhood amnesia have almost exclusively focused on the earliest memories of adults. Here we investigate the earliest memories of children of 6--19 years old. Parents confirmed the memory events and dated the memories. There were surprisingly few developmental differences between the earliest memories of children. Although 6--9-year-olds recalled earlier events than did older children, there were no differences between older age groups. Memories from all age groups were similar in structure, social orientation, and the nature of the recalled event. However, memories of older children were more likely to involve negative affect. There were also few gender differences, although girls were more likely to recall traumatic or transitional events while boys were more likely to recall play events. Overall, results deepen the paradox of early memory: 6--9-year-olds have verbally accessible memories from very early childhood that then seem to disappear as they get older.

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“…For example, in Tustin and Hayne (2010) the average age of earliest memory among 5-year-old children was 1.7 years, whereas the average age of earliest memory among 12-to 13-year-old children was 2.5 years. Similarly, in Peterson et al (2005), the average age of earliest memory among 6-to 9-year-old children was 3 years, whereas the average age of earliest memory among 10-year-olds was 3.5 years. In contrast, as noted earlier, among adults, there are not age-cohort effects.…”

Earliest Memories and Recent Memories of Highly Salient Events—Are They Similar?

“…They are typically short and often fragmentary, are generally about mundane events and frequently lack emotion (Peterson et al, 2005). Unlike injuries, these events are seldom the stuff of family discussion since parents often express surprise at what children recalled as their earliest memory (Peterson et al, 2005).…”

“…Unlike injuries, these events are seldom the stuff of family discussion since parents often express surprise at what children recalled as their earliest memory (Peterson et al, 2005). They are also often bereft of chronology and emotion (Peterson et al, 2005).…”

“…Families were recruited from the ER and interviews were conducted in their homes (see Peterson & Bell, 1996, for details on recruitment and injury interviews, and Peterson et al, 2005, for details on earliest memory elicitation). There were 18 4-5 year-olds (8 girls, mean age = 59.8 months, SD = 6.7), 18 6-7 year-olds (7 girls, mean age = 82.4 months, SD = 7.6), 18 8-9 year-olds (9 girls, mean age = 109.1 months, SD = 6.9) and 18 10-11 year-olds (9 girls, mean age = 131.1 months, SD = 7.1).…”

“…These include negative events such as personal injuries (see Peterson, 2012, for a review of one body of work), distressing medical procedures (e.g., Quas et al, 1999;Salmon, Price, & Pereira, 2002), and natural disasters (Bahrick, Parker, Fivush, & Levitt, 1998) as well as positive events such as trips to Disney World (Hamond & Fivush, 1991). Recently, an emerging body of work has examined children's very earliest memories; that is, those memories they recall when asked to think back to their first memories (Jack, MacDonald, Reese, & Hayne, 2009;Peterson, Grant, & Boland, 2005;Peterson, Wang, & Hou, 2009;Peterson, Warren, & Short, 2011;Reese, Jack, & White, 2010;Tustin & Hayne, 2010). In contrast to memories of salient later-occurring events, earliest memories are typically short and often sparse or fragmentary.…”