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There's probably some genetic switch flipped or something. I can remember back to age 9 months. I tried writing out all my early-childhood memories (< age 5 y

There's probably some genetic switch flipped or something. I can remember back to age 9 months. I tried writing out all my early-childhood memories (< age 5 years) once when I was in college and got to about 10 screenfuls worth (encompassing only up to age 3), at which point I got bored and figured I'd just post what I had to LJ. My sister has similar, though not quite as vivid, recollections. I'd heard all my friends saying they basically couldn't remember anything before age 10, and I thought "bullshit", but apparently they're the ones who are normal and I'm the one who's a psychological oddity. I have one therapist friend who said that early memories are a sign of trauma, but then I've also had therapists that say early memories are a sign of giftedness. Maybe these are one and the same, and developing consciousness and memory too early is its own form of trauma. It's been fascinating to watch long-term memory develop in my son, though. When he was about 20 months old, we went on a walk by a house in the neighborhood that had a half-eaten pizza box strewn across its yard. We went back two weeks later, and he asked "Where's the pizza?" I was like "What pizza?" until I remembered what it had looked like a couple weeks before, and was like "It got cleaned up. How did you remember there was a pizza there?"

tablespoon 5y ago
> I'd heard all my friends saying they basically couldn't remember anything before age 10, and I thought "bullshit", but apparently they're the ones who are normal and I'm the one who's a psychological oddity. That doesn't seem normal, either. I mean, they couldn't even remember a friend they had from first grade? Maybe they weren't prompted adequately.
- nostrademons 5y ago
  Likely. When we first started dating, my wife said she couldn't remember anything before she was 10 (interestingly, this also included childhood friends), but after a few years of marriage I've definitely heard memories going back to age 3 or so. I suspect there's another cognitive difference at work here too, where my wife says she doesn't bother remembering things unless she thinks they'll be useful later, while I tend to store all sorts of random events and facts and figure I'll just sort through them later. As a result all of her early memories have to be "cued" (specifically asked about, or recalled in relation to some other similar situation that came to mind), while I could tell you about the time I got dropped off at a babysitter's house age 9 months or the pony ride I had for my 3rd birthday or how I'd go with my dad to the Veryfine juice factory in Littleton MA to pick up cases of juice bottles for my lunch.
  - hliyan 5y ago
    Agreed. What I think most people mean is that they can't recall events from those ages at will. Neither can I, but certain triggers can bring back a handful of vivid memories of events from when I was between 3-4 years old. For example seeing a house with the same architectural style as the one I grew up in.
    - pantalaimon 5y ago
      Reading this thread brings back memories from early childhood too, I just came up with several memories from kindergarten of which I haven't thought in years.
- TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago
  It’s not unusual for adults to have quite poor recall of situations or events prior to age 10. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia
  - odiroot 5y ago
    I can remember quite well my first years, including Kindergarten but it's very very hard for me to remember my primary school and to some extent the secondary school periods. I wonder, whether it's still the same phenomenon, or just that that period was relatively boring and unremarkable to my brain.
    - pantalaimon 5y ago
      or maybe it's because this thread is all about preschool, so those memories are brought more into cognition. Let's do an experiment, I'll try to conjure some primary school memories and we'll see if that brings forth some of yours: - I remember a teacher sending me to fetch the polylux (a type of overhead projector) from another room. I didn't know yet what that was, but duefully obliged. I told the teacher in the other room that I was sent to get some kind of lynx, which I found hilarious. - we did get flavored milk in paper boxes that had to be recycled in a special bin. The bin had only a slit so kids were forced to learn how to unfold the box so it takes up less space in the bin (those boxes are very common for all types of drinks and to this day it irritates me if someone doesn't unfold them when throwing them away). In the summer the bin would smell atrocious. - I remember a fried who had a color printer & scanner at home and who offered to replicate a paper dinosaur model for the whole crafts class. 90ies inkjet technology was not up to the task and rendered all instructions unreadable - some kids managed to come up with some interesting creations still - I well remember running through the hallway and somehow not making the turn, hitting my head hard on the wall/door - at some point me and a couple of friends would build 'spaceships' out of boxes and bring them to school to play with during breaks. I got sick and while I stayed home I used the time to build a really big spaceship - but when I returned the next week, the spaceship craze had already ended - bubble gum with pokémon stickers in them was all the rage
deleted 5y ago
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tablespoon 5y ago

> I'd heard all my friends saying they basically couldn't remember anything before age 10, and I thought "bullshit", but apparently they're the ones who are normal and I'm the one who's a psychological oddity. That doesn't seem normal, either. I mean, they couldn't even remember a friend they had from first grade? Maybe they weren't prompted adequately.

nostrademons 5y ago
Likely. When we first started dating, my wife said she couldn't remember anything before she was 10 (interestingly, this also included childhood friends), but after a few years of marriage I've definitely heard memories going back to age 3 or so. I suspect there's another cognitive difference at work here too, where my wife says she doesn't bother remembering things unless she thinks they'll be useful later, while I tend to store all sorts of random events and facts and figure I'll just sort through them later. As a result all of her early memories have to be "cued" (specifically asked about, or recalled in relation to some other similar situation that came to mind), while I could tell you about the time I got dropped off at a babysitter's house age 9 months or the pony ride I had for my 3rd birthday or how I'd go with my dad to the Veryfine juice factory in Littleton MA to pick up cases of juice bottles for my lunch.
- hliyan 5y ago
  Agreed. What I think most people mean is that they can't recall events from those ages at will. Neither can I, but certain triggers can bring back a handful of vivid memories of events from when I was between 3-4 years old. For example seeing a house with the same architectural style as the one I grew up in.
  - pantalaimon 5y ago
    Reading this thread brings back memories from early childhood too, I just came up with several memories from kindergarten of which I haven't thought in years.
TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago
It’s not unusual for adults to have quite poor recall of situations or events prior to age 10. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood_amnesia
- odiroot 5y ago
  I can remember quite well my first years, including Kindergarten but it's very very hard for me to remember my primary school and to some extent the secondary school periods. I wonder, whether it's still the same phenomenon, or just that that period was relatively boring and unremarkable to my brain.
  - pantalaimon 5y ago
    or maybe it's because this thread is all about preschool, so those memories are brought more into cognition. Let's do an experiment, I'll try to conjure some primary school memories and we'll see if that brings forth some of yours: - I remember a teacher sending me to fetch the polylux (a type of overhead projector) from another room. I didn't know yet what that was, but duefully obliged. I told the teacher in the other room that I was sent to get some kind of lynx, which I found hilarious. - we did get flavored milk in paper boxes that had to be recycled in a special bin. The bin had only a slit so kids were forced to learn how to unfold the box so it takes up less space in the bin (those boxes are very common for all types of drinks and to this day it irritates me if someone doesn't unfold them when throwing them away). In the summer the bin would smell atrocious. - I remember a fried who had a color printer & scanner at home and who offered to replicate a paper dinosaur model for the whole crafts class. 90ies inkjet technology was not up to the task and rendered all instructions unreadable - some kids managed to come up with some interesting creations still - I well remember running through the hallway and somehow not making the turn, hitting my head hard on the wall/door - at some point me and a couple of friends would build 'spaceships' out of boxes and bring them to school to play with during breaks. I got sick and while I stayed home I used the time to build a really big spaceship - but when I returned the next week, the spaceship craze had already ended - bubble gum with pokémon stickers in them was all the rage

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]