Perhaps your earliest memory is of a happy time on holiday, or a traumatic event such as a fall. But if that memory is from before the age of two, it’s almost certainly impossible, researchers said yesterday.
In the largest ever study on early memory, 6,641 people were questioned about their first memory. They were told the memory should not be linked to photos of themselves, a family story, or any other source apart from direct experience. 60% of first memories were from the average age of 3.24 years – matching research showing this is when we develop the mental faculties to form memories.
These memories included “the first time I walked” and “the first word I spoke”. The authors said for older people, early memories could be explained by a need to “complete” the story of their life to their earliest years. They said 30 percent were about family relationships such as “my parents were going on holiday” and a further 18 percent remembered “feeling sad”.
Professor Martin Conway said: “When we looked through the responses from participants we found that a lot of these first memories were frequently related to infancy. For this person, this type of memory could have resulted from someone saying something like ‘mother had a large green pram’. The person then imagines what it would have looked like. Over time these then become a memory and often the person will start to add things in such as toys along the top. In fact, when people are told that their memories are false they often don’t believe it.” He added: “It’s not until we’re five or six that we form adult-like memories due to the way that the brain develops.”
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