Do you ever think, “Oh yeah, I remember that. It happened when I was a baby, right?” Well, chances are you don’t actually remember it. Chances are what you remember is what your parents told you and you created the memory for yourself. Truth is, humans don’t remember their infant years. But why not?
Some scientists believe that this “childhood amnesia” is caused because our brains were too underdeveloped. As babies, some scientists believe that it is certainly possible to form some sorts of memories because the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe, two important areas of the brain used to form memories, are pretty well developed by the time we are one. but, our prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that assists in helping us store personal memories isn’t fully developed until early adulthood. Therefore, without the prefrontal cortex, it is impossible to commit things to memory. To read more click here.
Other scientists attribute this memory loss to the fact that our language is hardly developed. They argue that without language, we were not able to rehearse the memories and bring them back. Some even argue that because we did not know language, we were unable to store our memories properly. For example, when you first went to school, you were not surrounded by books or teachers or pencils because you didn’t know the words for those things existed. Therefore, you categorized the memory completely differently than you were to do so now.
Lastly, other scientist believe that we don’t have trouble storing the memories at all. These scientists argue that the problem lies within the drastic change in perspective. It is obvious that when we are little we certainly see the world very differently than how we see it now. Everything was foreign, we still didn’t have names for things, and everything just seemed too big for our use. It is possible that when we were babies, everything was so different that when we stored the memory, we have no cues to help retrieve it. Now, when you pass a shop on the street, you can remember that you have been there. But as an infant, the shop probably looked twice as big and twice as foreign. Therefore, you would not have the same retrieval cues because you see everything differently.
Most, if not all, of these explanations make complete sense. However, while I believe they all work together in some way to help block our memories, I think that our lack of language is the biggest contributing factor. Personally, it makes more sense to me because if I don’t know what something is, how can I store it in my memory? If I don’t know that what I’m looking at as a baby is a lamp, then I won’t be able to retrieve that memory when I’m older and am looking at the same lamp. In a sense, it like the lamp is two different objects; one is a lamp, and the other is an unknown object. It would be great to one day remember what I was doing at 3 months old and what I was thinking but until then, I guess i’ll just keep asking my parents.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/12330/why-cant-you-remember-being-baby
Hey Leona, I actually think about this very often because not only can I not remember being a baby, but most of my childhood has faded from my memory as well. Its so strange that I can’t remember things most people can and is kind of upsetting, there are so many years that I should be able to remember small details of but I can’t. Heres a link that further addresses this topic http://mentalfloss.com/article/12330/why-cant-you-remember-being-baby
I wish I remembered what it was like during my infant years. I would hear stories from my parents about the past but I would have no memory of these events happening. In my psychology class, I learned that infants don’t have any memories until about the age of three. I find it interesting that our memory loss can be correlated to language. Babies develop the language skill at about 18 month. So, I guess it’s correct to say before the age of three, our language skills are very poor and therefore we can’t remember anything because we don’t understand what we are seeing. I also agree with your conclusion that both language and perspective affects our infant memories. I also believe that as an infant, our brain isn’t fully developed yet and that can contribute to our memory loss too. Overall, good job on the blog post.
How crazy is it that there are a few YEARS of our life that we don’t remember! This makes me wonder though at what age do we start to remember things? I have a few little glimpse memories of preschool and kindergarten, but is that because it was so long ago that I just can’t remember what happened or is it because my brain was not developed enough yet? This article says children start forming good solid memories at age 2! I guess since it was so long ago we just can’t remember everything. I mean I can’t even remember some things that happened a month ago!