Lots of memories are accessed by association. But when your entire experience is small (very young), the associations are by necessity fragmentary or coincident

Lots of memories are accessed by association. But when your entire experience is small (very young), the associations are by necessity fragmentary or coincidental. I love iced cream, which I first encountered when visiting Uncle Roger. Is good ol' Roger gonna be 'the ice cream man' forever? It's an 'incidental association' that is not useful or helpful. I think that alone is enough reason for evolution to 'downgrade' early memories. To reset the 'weights' between experiences because they are often wrong and misleading. Never mind adult humans find this annoying or disturbing. Nature doesn't give a flying fart how we feel about what hacks it uses on us.