My First Memory
From our current understanding of memory suggests that we do not recall anything before we are four years old. It continues that if we do recall something it may not be that you actually experienced it but that because people have told it to you, you then create and fill in the details with your mind as if you really remember it happening.
This was explained more in detail with the experiment we went over, during a lecture where they did an experiment where they tried to create a memory just through talking about the one made up event mixed with multiple other real memories. This is a very interesting and somewhat powerful thing that psychologists have found out.
My first memory is of the 1996 World Series where the third basemen for the New York Yankees catches a foul ball and then celebrates as if they had won the World Series. The only reason I believe this is truly a memory and not just something told to me by my parents, is that my parents never talked to me about this because it was not a big deal in their mind.
The one problem is that I have no recollection of where I was during the event; I don’t even know if I actually watched it or if I saw it a couple years after and encoded it as if I had seen it live. If I think really hard I can vaguely remember sitting on the couch and watching it on my fathers lap.
The problem I have now with this memory is that it is impossible for me to have this vivid of a memory because you are not supposed to remember anything before you are around 4 and I was only about 14 months at the time. So the only valid explanation is that I am just recreating it with my mind as the people in the studies did.
This topic and post is very relatable to many of us. We all want to remember what our first memory is but it’s difficult and the truth is we may never really know. Although my first memory was not as young as you were, I was 3 years old which is still younger than the age most first memories occur. Like you, we believe this is our first memory because I didn’t hear many stories about this memory. Mine was when I was 3 and I broke my arm. Obviously my parents have told me some stories but when I actually fell off a chair and physically broke my arm I was all by myself. And I specifically remember searching my house for my mom. She was on the stairs with my younger brother, tying his shoes. I really believe this is my first memory because she couldn’t have known the feeling and confusion I was going through at those specific moments. Yes, she could have and has told me about the visit to the doctor’s right away but no one was present with me when I actually broke my arm. It’s weird to think that most of us have an idea of what our first memory is but not a lot of us actually know or will ever know if it really is a memory or just stories being passed along.
I too found this as one of the cooler things we learned about in class this year. It got me wondering when my first memory was. As I began to think, I remember a few vague things about my babysitter and my preschool days. My preschool days are the memory I do actually believe to be a real memory. I remember using a specific toy car on a mat and playing with friends with it. I believe this to be a real memory because my parents would not have been there to see it and I don’t think anyone else could tell me about it. So I believe this is a real memory. On the other hand, I have memories from before preschool at my babysitters house and the things I would do there. They are very faint memories though. I remember some things about the kids who were also with me being babysat. This leads me to believe that these memories came from things I was told, either by my parents, or my by my babysitter in the future. I just think it is very cool how we can never really tell the difference between what kind of memory is real and what is not.
After learning about this topic and class and reading over both your posts, it got me thinking to what my first memory was. Thinking back that far is obviously very difficult especially with no cues getting me to reach back into my long term memory. After thinking for a while I realized that the earliest thing I could remember was from when I was three years old sitting on my mothers lap. I could have sworn I remembered hearing the scream of my younger brother when he slammed his finger in a door and how my mother quickly pushed me off her lap to go attend to my brother. I also can invasion distinctly the table I then smacked my chin on and the remainder of the day at the hospital when they decided I needed stitches.
However after learning about how memories work, I decided to try and find out if I really did remember any of this by asking my mom for pictures of this day and she did in fact have pictures or my old living room, and the couch and table where this all occurred. She then followed up by reminding me how old I was and how vividly she remembered the story which peculiarly resembled my story exactly. After processing all of this information it became clear to me that I actually do not remember this experience and that I was simply able to convince myself that I did after hearing my mother’s story so many time.
Obviously this experience is a little different than your seeing as you still think you remember watching the 1996 World Series, however it is funny to think about how you might really never know. This idea makes me wonder how many of my memories are real and how many are just other people’s memories and ideas that rubbed off on me.
I have to say, you’re not the only one to have experienced this type of recollection in their infancy, as I too have a clear memory of before I was four years old. Now I wasn’t as young as 14 months but i must have been about two and a half years old. It’s my very first memory ever, and it started with me waking up in my bed (which was a crib at the time, or had guardrails, I’m not exactly sure) fully dressed. I can remember exactly what I was wearing too. I had on a green sweater with a red stripe across the chest and a collar and a white shirt underneath. I was also wearing khaki pants with brown belt and white socks. Not very interesting, but that’s all I remember and the only memory that i have that doesn’t belong to me as a toddler. I suppose my take on this is how remarked your first memory being so vivid and real, and that’s exactly the detail I picture year after year ever since I could recollect. I’m sure (as we’ve learned in class) that this could be a false reconstruction of a memory or may have even occurred later in my life, but that doesn’t change how strong and vivid that memory is to me. Like I said, you’re not the only one to experience this. Very weird.