I also have a hobby of asking people what their earliest memory was. My first memory is firmly datable to 10 days after my 3rd birthday. The assassination of J

I also have a hobby of asking people what their earliest memory was. My first memory is firmly datable to 10 days after my 3rd birthday. The assassination of John F. Kennedy was announced over the radio while I has sitting down with my mum at the kitchen table. Not a particularly traumatic memory. The response was surprisingly intellectual: something along the lines of "hmm the world is complicated", so not particularly traumatic. The memory has definitely never been externally re-implanted, but I sometimes wonder if it is a memory of a memory of a memory. It is nonetheless very vivid with lots of visual detail. There are a few other memories that are of events that occurred before my 4th birthday, but none that can be firmly dated. I agree. In my experience, first memories dating to 5, 6 or 7 years old, or occasionally even later are pretty common; those dating to 3 or 4 years old, less common. I've never met anyone who has a memory that can be dated to before their 3rd birthday. But the biggest challenge for almost everyone is attaching dates to early memories.