Radio 4 gave time again this week to a scientist expert in childhood memory who cited experimental work which ‘proves’ that it is impossible to remember things which happened when you were very young, basically before speech develops
I am one of those who believes this is codswallop
Based on my own experience of course
I remember the first time someone told me that his earliest memory dated back to when he was about 8. How could you have 8 whole blank years, I thought
Later I got to know a young man who asserted that he could remember nothing that had happened to him before the age of 14 (he was then about 18), but that definitely reflected a deeper psychological disturbance
I sometimes think I can remember events which date right back to some time in my first year, but since many of them relate to events recorded in the family photo album I am prepared to concede that there may be some reworking going on. But from then on they come thick & fast, many of them the kind of tiny event (often involving tiny frustrations) which nobody else could possibly have told me about
But I have a particular beef with the experiment which is reported to prove the scientific case
Very young children were exposed to a ‘unique experience’ – details unspecified - which later they prove unable to recall. Slightly older children can recall similar unique experiences
How do they know that the children cannot recall the event? How do they know the children understand what it is that the adult who is doing the questioning wants to hear?
At that age a child has many ‘unique experiences’, the days are full of them
And I well remember our bemusement when our daughter, well into the age of speech, apparently completely failed to remember an important national event which we had taken her to. Denied having seen various impressive performances
But she did remember - & often mentioned – the man in the funny hat with a trumpet. It was her parents who could not remember him, had to have their memories jogged
I am one of those who believes this is codswallop
Based on my own experience of course
I remember the first time someone told me that his earliest memory dated back to when he was about 8. How could you have 8 whole blank years, I thought
Later I got to know a young man who asserted that he could remember nothing that had happened to him before the age of 14 (he was then about 18), but that definitely reflected a deeper psychological disturbance
I sometimes think I can remember events which date right back to some time in my first year, but since many of them relate to events recorded in the family photo album I am prepared to concede that there may be some reworking going on. But from then on they come thick & fast, many of them the kind of tiny event (often involving tiny frustrations) which nobody else could possibly have told me about
But I have a particular beef with the experiment which is reported to prove the scientific case
Very young children were exposed to a ‘unique experience’ – details unspecified - which later they prove unable to recall. Slightly older children can recall similar unique experiences
How do they know that the children cannot recall the event? How do they know the children understand what it is that the adult who is doing the questioning wants to hear?
At that age a child has many ‘unique experiences’, the days are full of them
And I well remember our bemusement when our daughter, well into the age of speech, apparently completely failed to remember an important national event which we had taken her to. Denied having seen various impressive performances
But she did remember - & often mentioned – the man in the funny hat with a trumpet. It was her parents who could not remember him, had to have their memories jogged
memory does not depend just on words - smells & strong emotions are especially powerful. We may need to put them into words in order to bring them to the front of our minds, in order to reflect on, or to relate them to others, but we can do that later, after the event
