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Another thing is how can we date when a memory is? I have a collection of memories from when I was 22 months old, but I can date those in retrospect. I also h

Another thing is how can we date when a memory is? I have a collection of memories from when I was 22 months old, but I can date those in retrospect. I also have various memories of being fairly young, but have no idea if they were before or after 22 months as there is nothing to date them by. It's not that different than more modern memories - I can remember something happened about a decade back, but often have no idea if it happened eight years ago or twelve years ago, unless I can date and contextualize it by some means.

jmyeet 4y ago
I see a lot of claims like this. I believe you believe it's true. The scientific evidence is to the contrary however. Memory at this age is extremely malleable. And I mean "malleable" even years later. I mean "malleable" as in you can create false memories. Consider this experiment [1]. Participants were told about meeting Bugs Bunny at Disney. A significant number of participants then added their own stories of the same thing happening. Bugs Bunny isn't at Disney. He's a Warner Brothers character. What I suspect happens is that you're told about these events at various points, enough that you start to fill in the details. Dating memories from childhood is even more difficult. It's easy to be years off the mark. Often it's only successfully dated by corroborating details eg you remember a dog that died when you were 4 or you remember your room in a house that you moved out of. [1]: https://www.washington.edu/news/2001/06/11/i-tawt-i-taw-a-bunny-wabbit-at-disneyland-new-evidence-shows-false-memories-can-be-created/ https://www.washington.edu/news/2001/06/11/i-tawt-i-taw-a-bu...
- StopTheWorld 4y ago
  > The scientific evidence is to the contrary however The scientific evidence? Scientists have no idea why a nematode with 302 neurons moves to the left or the right, how can a scientist determine that I don't remember what I remember?
- conductr 4y ago
  I can confirm this happens to me. Several occasions I have a “memory” of something. A house we lived in, a late relative, etc. Things that have an oral history since before most my normal memory begins. I have an image in my head of what that memory was to me. (My normal memory is rather image recall based, even for facts I remember/see the books/movie/website where I saw it as a reference for the memory.) Except on a handful of these early memories, I’ve later, sometimes much later, found an old photo in one of the family albums that IS my memory. Leaves me somewhat in a minor existential crisis each time I realize my memory is a sham.
- pram 4y ago
  Given the date of the study, I think there’s something they didn’t consider. Bugs Bunny may not have been there, but Roger Rabbit was! For the bulk of the 90s a child could have met a character that was essentially a Bugs Bunny parody/homage without the appropriate context.
- kxrm 4y ago
  It's anecdotal, but I have memories from when I was an infant. The only reason I know is because my parents relocated a lot when I was young. I have spacial recall of the layout of their apartments. I have specific vivid memories in a kitchen playing with a train. I can describe the layout of my parents apartments and the furniture they had. There are few pictures from that time period, and none showing the layout. A few years ago, I asked my mom about the layout of two of the apartments and described in very good detail the layout and furniture. She said I was correct. We moved out of those apartments by the time I was 2 years old. These are all mundane memories, a clock radio playing "Eye of the Tiger" across from my crib. Playing in a kitchen and dining area. The layout of my bedroom including the fact that there was a brick wall in the room. No pictures of this room and yet my parents remember these details as well. These are mundane spacial details. There is further a memory I have of being outside of an apartment being carried inside the apartment and to the left of the entry way was a mirrored wall with an orange couch in front of it. My parents have no pictures from this time period, and we moved out of that apartment when I was a little over a month old, because it was, according to my mother, a childless apartment complex, so they had to leave. I have a lot of memories that pre-date me being 4 which many people I know have no or only one or two memories from their lives that young. I just find it hard to believe that I manufactured all these memories. I don't believe that everyone has Infantile Amnesia. Maybe many do, but not everyone.

jmyeet 4y ago

I see a lot of claims like this. I believe you believe it's true. The scientific evidence is to the contrary however. Memory at this age is extremely malleable. And I mean "malleable" even years later. I mean "malleable" as in you can create false memories. Consider this experiment [1]. Participants were told about meeting Bugs Bunny at Disney. A significant number of participants then added their own stories of the same thing happening. Bugs Bunny isn't at Disney. He's a Warner Brothers character. What I suspect happens is that you're told about these events at various points, enough that you start to fill in the details. Dating memories from childhood is even more difficult. It's easy to be years off the mark. Often it's only successfully dated by corroborating details eg you remember a dog that died when you were 4 or you remember your room in a house that you moved out of. [1]: https://www.washington.edu/news/2001/06/11/i-tawt-i-taw-a-bunny-wabbit-at-disneyland-new-evidence-shows-false-memories-can-be-created/ https://www.washington.edu/news/2001/06/11/i-tawt-i-taw-a-bu...

StopTheWorld 4y ago
> The scientific evidence is to the contrary however The scientific evidence? Scientists have no idea why a nematode with 302 neurons moves to the left or the right, how can a scientist determine that I don't remember what I remember?
conductr 4y ago
I can confirm this happens to me. Several occasions I have a “memory” of something. A house we lived in, a late relative, etc. Things that have an oral history since before most my normal memory begins. I have an image in my head of what that memory was to me. (My normal memory is rather image recall based, even for facts I remember/see the books/movie/website where I saw it as a reference for the memory.) Except on a handful of these early memories, I’ve later, sometimes much later, found an old photo in one of the family albums that IS my memory. Leaves me somewhat in a minor existential crisis each time I realize my memory is a sham.
pram 4y ago
Given the date of the study, I think there’s something they didn’t consider. Bugs Bunny may not have been there, but Roger Rabbit was! For the bulk of the 90s a child could have met a character that was essentially a Bugs Bunny parody/homage without the appropriate context.
kxrm 4y ago
It's anecdotal, but I have memories from when I was an infant. The only reason I know is because my parents relocated a lot when I was young. I have spacial recall of the layout of their apartments. I have specific vivid memories in a kitchen playing with a train. I can describe the layout of my parents apartments and the furniture they had. There are few pictures from that time period, and none showing the layout. A few years ago, I asked my mom about the layout of two of the apartments and described in very good detail the layout and furniture. She said I was correct. We moved out of those apartments by the time I was 2 years old. These are all mundane memories, a clock radio playing "Eye of the Tiger" across from my crib. Playing in a kitchen and dining area. The layout of my bedroom including the fact that there was a brick wall in the room. No pictures of this room and yet my parents remember these details as well. These are mundane spacial details. There is further a memory I have of being outside of an apartment being carried inside the apartment and to the left of the entry way was a mirrored wall with an orange couch in front of it. My parents have no pictures from this time period, and we moved out of that apartment when I was a little over a month old, because it was, according to my mother, a childless apartment complex, so they had to leave. I have a lot of memories that pre-date me being 4 which many people I know have no or only one or two memories from their lives that young. I just find it hard to believe that I manufactured all these memories. I don't believe that everyone has Infantile Amnesia. Maybe many do, but not everyone.