Question
Analyze the events and ideas in this article that you read. Explain why the author put them in that order and their connections, include two quotes.
Why can’t we remember our
lives as babies or toddlers?
Feb 15, 2025 07:00PM
Life must be great as a baby: to be fed and clothed and carried
places in soft pouches, to be waved and smiled at by adoring
strangers, to have the temerity to scream because food hasn’t
arrived quickly enough, and then to throw it on the ground when it
is displeasing. It’s a shame none of us recalls exactly how good we
once had it.
At Christmas, I watched my daughter, somehow already a toddler,
being passed between her grandfathers and thought, wistfully: she
won’t remember any of this. In parks, I push her endlessly on
swings, making small talk with fellow parents who have been
yoked into Sisyphean servitude, and think, ruefully: why won’t she
remember any of this?
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In 1905, Sigmund Freud coined the term “infantile amnesia”,
referring to “the peculiar amnesia which, in the case of most
people, though by no means all, hides the earliest beginnings of
their childhood”. More than a century later, psychologists are still
intrigued by why we can’t remember our earliest experiences.
“Most adults do not have memories before two to three years of
age,” says Prof Qi Wang at Cornell University. Up until about age
seven, memories of childhood are typically patchy.
Until relatively recently, researchers thought that young brains
weren’t developed enough to form lasting memories. But studies in
the 1980s showed that toddlers as young as two can form
memories and recall events from months earlier in great detail.
Exposure to early childhood trauma is also well documented to
increase the risk of later anxiety and depression. The paradox of
infantile amnesia, says Cristina Alberini, a professor of neural
science at New York University, is “how is it that those
experiences affect our life forever if they are forgotten?”
Alberini’s research in animals has found that memories formed
during the infantile amnesia period are, in fact, stored in the brain
until adulthood, even though they aren’t consciously remembered.
In both animal and human adults, forming and storing long-term
memories about one’s life experiences isn’t possible without a
region of the brain known as the hippocampus. Alberini’s work has
shown that the region is also important in early memories and
suggests that infantile amnesia occurs because of a critical period
where the hippocampus develops due to new experiences. “It
makes a lot of sense with all the literature of trauma,” she says. “If
the children are learning difficult situations in early childhood,
maybe they don’t remember the specifics, but their brains are
going to be shaped according to that experience.”
Why Māori memories emerge earlier
Differing experiences may also explain why the age at which
people recall their first memories varies significantly. Wang, an
expert in how culture affects autobiographical memory, has shown
that the earliest memories in Americans date from an age of about
3.5 years, almost six months younger than in Chinese people. The
American memories tended to be more self-focused and
emotionally elaborate, while the Chinese recollections tended to
centre on collective activities and general routines, she found.
“In the Asian context, identity and sense of self is less defined by
being unique, but [more] about your roles and your relationship
with others,” Wang says. To that end, memories may be less
important for defining identity than for informing behaviour and
imparting lessons. “If you want to use memory to construct a
unique sense of identity, you probably remember a lot of
idiosyncratic details,” Wang says.
Another explanation for the discrepancy seems to be how parents
discuss past experiences with their children. In New Zealand
Māori, first memories emerge earlier than in those of a European
background, at about 2.5 years old. Prof Elaine Reese at the
University of Otago, who studies autobiographical memory in
children and adolescents, points to a strong emphasis on oral
traditions in Māori culture but also elaborative conversations
when reminiscing about past events.
Reese has tracked groups of children from toddlerhood to
adolescence, finding that individuals who had richer narrative
environments in childhood could recall earlier and more detailed
first memories as teenagers. This was the case for children whose
mothers asked open-ended questions and were more detailed
when talking about shared past experiences, as well as children
who grew up in extended family households.
“We know that from the time [children] are, say, six-month-old
babies, they’re capable of some kind of mental imagery of
something that happened from the previous day or week,” Reese
says. “It’s taking that mental image and describing it in words that
I think is so important for helping them to hold on to that memory
over a lifetime.”
Ironically, for parenting influencers who post about elaborate
holidays in the name of creating “core memories”, the early events
that children retain can be surprisingly mundane – “things that
most parents would never reminisce elaboratively about”, Reese
says. “The classic example from my own research is a child who
remembers seeing a worm on the footpath one time.”
There is debate between memory experts as to the role of
language in infantile amnesia. Human researchers suggest
memories may be limited by an inability to give language to early
experiences. “But there must be something more fundamental that
also plays a role because we see this same [infantile amnesia]
effect in non-linguistic animals like rats,” says Prof Rick
Richardson of the University of New South Wales.
1
‘Improbably early’
The brain lays down memories not as discrete files as on a
computer but as networks of neurons across the brain. Recalling a
memory activates those networks and strengthens the links
between neurons. This is not to say memory is stable: “Every time
you revisit a memory and think about it, you’re changing it,” Reese
says.
Repeated suggestions can lead people to create images and form
false memories, Wang says, citing a famous case in Jean Piaget,
the influential child development psychologist. Piaget had a clear
memory of his nanny fighting off a would-be kidnapper when he
was two – but years later, she confessed that she had fabricated
the story.
In a 2018 survey, 39% of respondents reported their first
memories occurred at age two or younger. The researchers
suggested that “improbably early” memories, such as recollections
of being pushed in a pram or walking for the first time, were likely
fictional and based on photographs or family stories. But though
memory is malleable and young children are more suggestible,
“confabulation is not that common”, Wang says. “Under normal
conditions, even children do not just take for granted whatever
you tell them and incorporate those memories.”
So if experiences of our early milestones – first birthday, first
steps, first trip to the beach – seem to be cached somewhere in the
brain, why can’t we consciously access them? While psychologists
say it can be adaptive to forget, that doesn’t explain why the
memories formed before age seven seem to decay faster than
when we’re adults. Alberini hypothesises that early unrecalled
memories may function as schemas upon which adult memories
are built. Like the foundations of a home, they remain concealed
but crucial.
Why can’t we remember our
lives as babies or toddlers?
Feb 15, 2025 07:00PM
Life must be great as a baby: to be fed and clothed and carried
places in soft pouches, to be waved and smiled at by adoring
strangers, to have the temerity to scream because food hasn’t
arrived quickly enough, and then to throw it on the ground when it
is displeasing. It’s a shame none of us recalls exactly how good we
once had it.
At Christmas, I watched my daughter, somehow already a toddler,
being passed between her grandfathers and thought, wistfully: she
won’t remember any of this. In parks, I push her endlessly on
swings, making small talk with fellow parents who have been
yoked into Sisyphean servitude, and think, ruefully: why won’t she
remember any of this?
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
In 1905, Sigmund Freud coined the term “infantile amnesia”,
referring to “the peculiar amnesia which, in the case of most
people, though by no means all, hides the earliest beginnings of
their childhood”. More than a century later, psychologists are still
intrigued by why we can’t remember our earliest experiences.
“Most adults do not have memories before two to three years of
age,” says Prof Qi Wang at Cornell University. Up until about age
seven, memories of childhood are typically patchy.
Until relatively recently, researchers thought that young brains
weren’t developed enough to form lasting memories. But studies in
the 1980s showed that toddlers as young as two can form
memories and recall events from months earlier in great detail.
Exposure to early childhood trauma is also well documented to
increase the risk of later anxiety and depression. The paradox of
infantile amnesia, says Cristina Alberini, a professor of neural
science at New York University, is “how is it that those
experiences affect our life forever if they are forgotten?”
Alberini’s research in animals has found that memories formed
during the infantile amnesia period are, in fact, stored in the brain
until adulthood, even though they aren’t consciously remembered.
In both animal and human adults, forming and storing long-term
memories about one’s life experiences isn’t possible without a
region of the brain known as the hippocampus. Alberini’s work has
shown that the region is also important in early memories and
suggests that infantile amnesia occurs because of a critical period
where the hippocampus develops due to new experiences. “It
makes a lot of sense with all the literature of trauma,” she says. “If
the children are learning difficult situations in early childhood,
maybe they don’t remember the specifics, but their brains are
going to be shaped according to that experience.”
Why Māori memories emerge earlier
Differing experiences may also explain why the age at which
people recall their first memories varies significantly. Wang, an
expert in how culture affects autobiographical memory, has shown
that the earliest memories in Americans date from an age of about
3.5 years, almost six months younger than in Chinese people. The
American memories tended to be more self-focused and
emotionally elaborate, while the Chinese recollections tended to
centre on collective activities and general routines, she found.
“In the Asian context, identity and sense of self is less defined by
being unique, but [more] about your roles and your relationship
with others,” Wang says. To that end, memories may be less
important for defining identity than for informing behaviour and
imparting lessons. “If you want to use memory to construct a
unique sense of identity, you probably remember a lot of
idiosyncratic details,” Wang says.
Another explanation for the discrepancy seems to be how parents
discuss past experiences with their children. In New Zealand
Māori, first memories emerge earlier than in those of a European
background, at about 2.5 years old. Prof Elaine Reese at the
University of Otago, who studies autobiographical memory in
children and adolescents, points to a strong emphasis on oral
traditions in Māori culture but also elaborative conversations
when reminiscing about past events.
Reese has tracked groups of children from toddlerhood to
adolescence, finding that individuals who had richer narrative
environments in childhood could recall earlier and more detailed
first memories as teenagers. This was the case for children whose
mothers asked open-ended questions and were more detailed
when talking about shared past experiences, as well as children
who grew up in extended family households.
“We know that from the time [children] are, say, six-month-old
babies, they’re capable of some kind of mental imagery of
something that happened from the previous day or week,” Reese
says. “It’s taking that mental image and describing it in words that
I think is so important for helping them to hold on to that memory
over a lifetime.”
Ironically, for parenting influencers who post about elaborate
holidays in the name of creating “core memories”, the early events
that children retain can be surprisingly mundane – “things that
most parents would never reminisce elaboratively about”, Reese
says. “The classic example from my own research is a child who
remembers seeing a worm on the footpath one time.”
There is debate between memory experts as to the role of
language in infantile amnesia. Human researchers suggest
memories may be limited by an inability to give language to early
experiences. “But there must be something more fundamental that
also plays a role because we see this same [infantile amnesia]
effect in non-linguistic animals like rats,” says Prof Rick
Richardson of the University of New South Wales.
1
‘Improbably early’
The brain lays down memories not as discrete files as on a
computer but as networks of neurons across the brain. Recalling a
memory activates those networks and strengthens the links
between neurons. This is not to say memory is stable: “Every time
you revisit a memory and think about it, you’re changing it,” Reese
says.
Repeated suggestions can lead people to create images and form
false memories, Wang says, citing a famous case in Jean Piaget,
the influential child development psychologist. Piaget had a clear
memory of his nanny fighting off a would-be kidnapper when he
was two – but years later, she confessed that she had fabricated
the story.
In a 2018 survey, 39% of respondents reported their first
memories occurred at age two or younger. The researchers
suggested that “improbably early” memories, such as recollections
of being pushed in a pram or walking for the first time, were likely
fictional and based on photographs or family stories. But though
memory is malleable and young children are more suggestible,
“confabulation is not that common”, Wang says. “Under normal
conditions, even children do not just take for granted whatever
you tell them and incorporate those memories.”
So if experiences of our early milestones – first birthday, first
steps, first trip to the beach – seem to be cached somewhere in the
brain, why can’t we consciously access them? While psychologists
say it can be adaptive to forget, that doesn’t explain why the
memories formed before age seven seem to decay faster than
when we’re adults. Alberini hypothesises that early unrecalled
memories may function as schemas upon which adult memories
are built. Like the foundations of a home, they remain concealed
but crucial.
Answers
Answered by
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The article explores the concept of infantile amnesia, the inability to recall memories from early childhood, and presents a range of scientific perspectives on why this phenomenon occurs. The author structures the article in a logical progression that intertwines personal reflections with scientific inquiry, beginning with a poignant observation and gradually moving into more complex psychological and cultural analyses.
The opening paragraph establishes a sensory and emotional connection by describing the joys of infancy and the nostalgia the author feels when observing their daughter. The line, “it’s a shame none of us recalls exactly how good we once had it,” creates a universal sentiment that invites readers to reflect on their own childhoods. Following this personal perspective, the author introduces the scientific realm with a historical reference to Sigmund Freud, who coined the term “infantile amnesia.” By beginning with personal anecdotes and then grounding them in scientific context, the author effectively hooks the reader while providing a foundation for the exploration of the phenomenon.
The article moves systematically through various theories and findings related to infantile amnesia, including the role of brain development and cultural influences. For instance, the author discusses Professor Qi Wang’s research contrasting memory formation in American and Chinese children, stating, “In the Asian context, identity and sense of self is less defined by being unique, but [more] about your roles and your relationship with others.” This quote emphasizes how cultural narratives shape memory recall, suggesting that the differences in memory age are influenced not only by biological factors but also by sociocultural contexts.
The article continues to explore how cognitive processes impact memory, referencing the importance of language and narrative in forming lasting memories. The discussion leads to the insights of Professor Elaine Reese, who explains that the richness of narrative environments contributes to earlier, more detailed memory recall. The quote, “We know that from the time [children] are, say, six-month-old babies, they’re capable of some kind of mental imagery of something that happened from the previous day or week,” underlines the cognitive abilities present even in very young children, challenging the assumption that they are utterly incapable of forming memories.
Throughout the piece, the author draws connections between memory, identity, and the impact of early experiences. Toward the conclusion, the exploration of “improbably early” memories invites further questioning of the reliability of recollection, hinting at the complexities of how memories are formed and later recalled or distorted. The author closes by highlighting the adaptive aspect of forgetting, suggesting that the memories formed in early childhood might not be entirely lost but instead serve as foundational schemas for future memory development.
In summary, the article’s order reflects a journey from a personal, relatable experience to a scientific analysis of memory development. This structured approach allows the author to build a compelling narrative that links emotional and intellectual facets of childhood memories, culminating in an exploration of the profound implications of what it means to remember – and to forget.
The opening paragraph establishes a sensory and emotional connection by describing the joys of infancy and the nostalgia the author feels when observing their daughter. The line, “it’s a shame none of us recalls exactly how good we once had it,” creates a universal sentiment that invites readers to reflect on their own childhoods. Following this personal perspective, the author introduces the scientific realm with a historical reference to Sigmund Freud, who coined the term “infantile amnesia.” By beginning with personal anecdotes and then grounding them in scientific context, the author effectively hooks the reader while providing a foundation for the exploration of the phenomenon.
The article moves systematically through various theories and findings related to infantile amnesia, including the role of brain development and cultural influences. For instance, the author discusses Professor Qi Wang’s research contrasting memory formation in American and Chinese children, stating, “In the Asian context, identity and sense of self is less defined by being unique, but [more] about your roles and your relationship with others.” This quote emphasizes how cultural narratives shape memory recall, suggesting that the differences in memory age are influenced not only by biological factors but also by sociocultural contexts.
The article continues to explore how cognitive processes impact memory, referencing the importance of language and narrative in forming lasting memories. The discussion leads to the insights of Professor Elaine Reese, who explains that the richness of narrative environments contributes to earlier, more detailed memory recall. The quote, “We know that from the time [children] are, say, six-month-old babies, they’re capable of some kind of mental imagery of something that happened from the previous day or week,” underlines the cognitive abilities present even in very young children, challenging the assumption that they are utterly incapable of forming memories.
Throughout the piece, the author draws connections between memory, identity, and the impact of early experiences. Toward the conclusion, the exploration of “improbably early” memories invites further questioning of the reliability of recollection, hinting at the complexities of how memories are formed and later recalled or distorted. The author closes by highlighting the adaptive aspect of forgetting, suggesting that the memories formed in early childhood might not be entirely lost but instead serve as foundational schemas for future memory development.
In summary, the article’s order reflects a journey from a personal, relatable experience to a scientific analysis of memory development. This structured approach allows the author to build a compelling narrative that links emotional and intellectual facets of childhood memories, culminating in an exploration of the profound implications of what it means to remember – and to forget.