Childhood memories: a review of the literature.

Abstract

Because psychoanalysts have stressed the point that much of the maladjustment among adults is due to infantile sexual experiences which have been repressed, and because their therapy is to reveal these early experiences to the patient and to readjust him to them, many people have associated the study of early memories solely with psychoanalytic doctrine. As we shall see presently, psychologists were interested in childhood memories long before psychoanalytic theory was well developed. Although we may agree with the psychoanalyst that the repressed experiences of infancy which are recalled with exceeding difficulty are significant for therapy, we must grant that other early experiences which are consciously recalled again and again in later years may be just as potent in determining behavior. A single example will make this clear. A two-year-old child has a very unpleasant experience with a pugnacious rooster. Although this child is in no wise injured, he recalls this highly affective experience many times in later life. And, even as a mature person, he has a horror of roosters and refuses to eat any type of fowl. This experience certainly was not repressed; and only the most credulous person would accept it as a sexual experience. Yet it is significant for an understanding of that person's adult behavior.That the conscious recall of early childhood experiences is of value for genetic psychology was recognized by Titchener (35), who, as early as 1900, wrote a brief note in the American Journal of Psychology in which he called the attention of psychologists to G. Stanley Hall's ( 16) "Note on early memories," published the year before. Titchener's enthusiasm for Hall's approach is indicated in his statement: "It [Hall's approach] is also of great importance from the genetic standpoint, and should receive careful criticism and consideration from workers in the genetic field" (35, p. 435). Several years later Hollingworth (25) commented favorably on Colegrove's (6) study of "Individual memories," published the same year as Hall's report. In other quarters, and

Intelligence and Cognitive Control

“…A consistent finding in the literature is that women have earlier first-memories than do men, although these differences are often small (e.g., Dudycha & Dudycha, 1941;Mullen 1994;Rubin, 2000). Moreover, women's autobiographical memory reports contain longer, more detailed, and more vivid accounts of their childhood experiences than do men's reports (e.g., see Bauer, Stennes, & Haight, 2003;Fivush, 2009).…”

“…Moreover, women's autobiographical memory reports contain longer, more detailed, and more vivid accounts of their childhood experiences than do men's reports (e.g., see Bauer, Stennes, & Haight, 2003;Fivush, 2009). Women and men also express different emotional content in their memory reports with anger, shame, guilt, and attachment issues common themes among women and concerns about competence, performance, achievement, and identity more commonly expressed by men (Cowan & Davidson, 1984;Dudycha & Dudycha, 1941). The origins of these individual differences between women and men in their reports of autobiographical events have typically been interpreted in a sociocultural framework.…”

The generalities and specifics of long-term memory in infants and young children

“…The "screen memory" is remembered instead of the more threatening memory that has been repressed. .The claim that most early memories are of routine and emotionally neutral episodes has not been verified in the various studies done since (Dudycha and Dudycha, 1941). Schachtel's (1947) important reconsideration of the Freudian theme draws more heavily on the influence of cultural schemes and the conventionalization of thought processes as explanations for the loss of early memory.…”

“…Many investigators have tried to examine variables thought to be relevant to the Freudian theory, especially the emotional content of early memory (see Dudycha and Dudycha, 1941 for a review of the early literature). More recently, White and Pillemer (1 979) have formulated a theoretical explanation that is related to the Freudian one in that it postulates a basic reorganization of cognitive processes at around seven years as an explanation for the phenomenon.…”

Stress-induced recovery of fears and phobias.

“…1959;Kamin, Brimer, & Black, 1963;Linden, 1969;Mineka. 1979). we look carefully at learning that occurs early in life, a period during which the organism obviously experiences and learns, but which is not available to conscious report (Dudycha & Dudycha, 1941;Moscovitch, 1984;Waldfogel, 1982). Few, if any memories of specific events from this stage of development are subsequently available to the adult.…”