Childhood Memories

[SezMe]

In this thread Winter expresses some memories from the age of 2-3. I am just blown away. My earliest memories are from 5th grade, which means I was about 10 years old. And these are vague and I seriously doubt have much to do with reality (whatever THAT means).

Do people have memories from the age of 2-3? Are they accurate (whatever that means, too)? Given that we know memories are quite fluid, what should we make of people (like Winter) who report events from decades ago as if they are actual events?

To be more personal, I have heard others report of childhood memories. Am I weird because I cannot remember anything before my first decade?

BTW, I was not sure this was the right forum to post this in. If it should be elsewhere, would a Mod please move it? Thanks.

 

[geni]

I've got a one off memory from about 2. Other than that I can remeber a few bit and pices from about 3 years old. The more major an event is the more likely you are to remeber it.

 

[crimresearch]

I have a few memories from age 3. which my parents have verified as quite accurate...certainly nothing like entire recall, just little incidents.

 

[SezMe]

I've got a one off memory from about 2. Other than that I can remeber a few bit and pices from about 3 years old. The more major an event is the more likely you are to remeber it.

I have no doubt that is true, but the question is: How "accurate" is your 2-year-old memory? How "reliable" are your "bit and pices" from 3-years-old?

Would you, like Winter, be prepared to report your memories from the age of 2 as factual?

 

[SezMe]

I have a few memories from age 3. which my parents have verified as quite accurate...certainly nothing like entire recall, just little incidents.

But doesn't this just beg the question? How can your parents "verify" your memories from years ago? Would anyone be prepared to argue that your parents' memories from years ago were "quite accurate?"

Look, I'm not trying to pig you geni. I am really trying to understand the relationship between childhood memories and "reality."

 

[geni]

I have no doubt that is true, but the question is: How "accurate" is your 2-year-old memory?

Questionable

How "reliable" are your "bit and pices" from 3-years-old?

Pretty the images don't appear in any photo I am aware of and I haven't seen the inside of that house since the layout fits my hight. There is a non visual one which I am very sure is correct since the floor surface would have been painful to crawl on.

Would you, like Winter, be prepared to report your memories from the age of 2 as factual? [/B]

2 only partly. Some of the ones from age 3 absolutly.

 

[SezMe]

Pretty the images don't appear in any photo I am aware of and I haven't seen the inside of that house since the layout fits my hight. There is a non visual one which I am very sure is correct since the floor surface would have been painful to crawl on.

Maybe it's Friday night and the suds have kicked in, but I cannot make heads or tails of this. My fear is that the problem is with me since you are such a cogent poster. Please clarify.

2 only partly. Some of the ones from age 3 absolutly.

"absolutly" [sic]? In light of current research that shows memories minutes after the fact are unreliable? And yet you are prepared to "absolutly" stand behind memories that are decades old (assuming you are not a teenager)? Huh? Please explain.

 

[Mycroft]

But doesn't this just beg the question? How can your parents "verify" your memories from years ago? Would anyone be prepared to argue that your parents' memories from years ago were "quite accurate?"

You can argue about the accuracy of memories from last week, I know my wife and I often do.

I have a handful of memories from the age of 2 and 3. I don't ever discuss them with anyone because there is no reason to, but they exist and its reason enough for me to believe others might have memories this old too.

 

[geni]

Maybe it's Friday night and the suds have kicked in, but I cannot make heads or tails of this. My fear is that the problem is with me since you are such a cogent poster. Please clarify.

The memory from when I was two is questionable

The memories from when I was three seem to be correct and don't appear to have any posible source that would create a false memory.

"absolutly" [sic]? In light of current research that shows memories minutes after the fact are unreliable? And yet you are prepared to "absolutly" stand behind memories that are decades old (assuming you are not a teenager)? Huh? Please explain. [/B]

Because they are limited. I know the floor in my first bedroom was painful to crawl on. I have no memory of what the room looked like.

I can get outside confermation of the memories from other people.

 

[RandFan]

I recently asked my mother about a memory I had when I was quite small. It was of a pig giving birth to a litter of pigs. I grew up on a farm but we had no pigs and none of our niehbors did either.

However my mother told me that my father ran a farm until I was 3 and there were pigs on that farm. My father confirmed that I was present during such an event (according to his memory).

I have other memories that I think are from around that age. However I can't be certain that any are truly accurate. It is possible I witnessed the birth later on a farm that we had visited.

I personally am certain it was the age of 3.

 

[crimresearch]

But doesn't this just beg the question? How can your parents "verify" your memories from years ago? Would anyone be prepared to argue that your parents' memories from years ago were "quite accurate?"

Look, I'm not trying to pig you geni. I am really trying to understand the relationship between childhood memories and "reality."

Yeah, right..so did your parents start lying to you when you were 4 about what you did when you were 3, and lying to you when you were 6 about what you did when you were 5, complete with doctored photos etc?

I wasn't talking about waiting until my parents were 80 for verification.

 

[Badger]

I have verifiable memories from before I was 22 months old.

I can relate things to my parents, that fit with incidents from before my brother was born, such as going to a particular circus performance, certain people visiting, a couple of scrapes I got myself into, etc. Some can be backed up by photographs.

I also have memories from a few months old. These are not as verifiable, though they are reasonable. These things include seeing my dad study for his Anaesthesiology tests, being unable to walk but able to crawl, activities at my grandparents farm, and things about being put down for naps.

There are certain things within these memories that provide significant clues to the dates of the occurrences, and they are consistent with my being an infant and toddler at those times.

Now, some may say these memories are the result of my prior exposure to discussions about these things, coupled perhaps with the photos that support them, but my memories are from a different perspective. I remember what the guy taking the picture looked like, or why I got into a particular scrape and what it felt like. I remember surrounding things. This, too, may seem to be a trick the mind can play on itself.

However, I DO remember what it's like to bounce in a "jolly jumper", and be fed pablum in a highchair, and to not be able to crawl up stairs, and how it feels to whack the edge of a coffee table with my head because my feet and legs weren't working right. These are, in my opinion, as valid as any other memories I have in my head.

 

[varwoche]

I seemingly have clear, verified memories from age 3. But, what's not clear is whether the memories are first hand. That is, are they memories of actual events, or are they memories of forgotten memories?

 

[Bikewer]

My wife claims to remember her 2nd birthday party, notable because she "squashed" the cake...

It's pretty well known that we "edit" memories, even after a rather short period of time. This is the manner in which false memories can be implanted and even strengthened.

Stephen Jay Gould, in one of his essays, recounts how it was proven to him that two of his cherished childhood memories were proven to be quite wrong.

 

[aerocontrols]

But doesn't this just beg the question? How can your parents "verify" your memories from years ago? Would anyone be prepared to argue that your parents' memories from years ago were "quite accurate?"

Look, I'm not trying to pig you geni. I am really trying to understand the relationship between childhood memories and "reality."

1) When I was 2 and 3 my recently-divorced mother had a boyfriend named Scott. I remember going swimming at the lake with my mother and Scott, and embarassing my mother by singing along with the song "Undercover Angel" in the car on the way to the lake.

2) I remember going to a park, where Scott flew a kite made out of newspaper. I also saw a wolf spider there. (I didn't know what it was except a big spider)

3) I remember being 3 years old and spending Christmas at Scott's parents house, they gave me some money to put in the bank.

4) I have only one memory from before my parent's divorce. (2 years old) I remember being in the front yard of the house and turning around to look at it. My main recollection is that the house was yellow.

5) My father remarried quickly, and I remember my new stepmother trying to convince me to call her 'mom'. I remember crying about it, but then my dad talked to me and I agreed.

My mother confirms all of these memories except the spider, which she either doesn't remember or didn't see, and the argument with my stepmother. I wouldn't be certain that 4) was real, (it's very fuzzy) if my mother had not confirmed that the house in question was yellow as I remembered.

MattJ

 

[LW]

I have many memories from time before I turned 5. They are usually short flashes of pictures in my mind.

I remember sitting on a paving stone afraid of walking on because a trail of ants went over the path. I was probably two or three at the time but might have been four.

Then once I went to sauna with my parents and they bought me pear limonade from the janitor. (We actually went there every week as we had reserved a regular time but I remember only one event).

And then me and my cousins run through a lawn sprinkler. The latest time when this may have happened was the summer when I turned four as my youngest uncle was present there and he died in a car accident next fall. (This is my only memory of him). I also remember that me and my brother were not taken to his funeral but someone came to look after us for the time. This, btw, is at the same time a false memory: I remember waiting inside my grandparent's new home even though they didn't buy it until about three years later.

I have perhaps 10 or 15 memories like that. Some of the memories that I think are from time before I turned five may be in fact from the summer when I was six. The major dividing line in my memories is the fall when I turned five because we then moved to Philippines for two years. So, if I remember something as happening before the move it may really have happened during the first time we came back Finland for a vacation, and this happened the next year.

I have several childhood memories that I know to be false: one summer we went to a nearby beach and saw an elk there. I remember seeing the elk beside the path leading to the water but in reality it was swimming in the lake. In another I'm walking to my aunt but I'm going along a road that doesn't lead there.

 

[billydkid]

In this thread Winter expresses some memories from the age of 2-3. I am just blown away. My earliest memories are from 5th grade, which means I was about 10 years old. And these are vague and I seriously doubt have much to do with reality (whatever THAT means).

Do people have memories from the age of 2-3? Are they accurate (whatever that means, too)? Given that we know memories are quite fluid, what should we make of people (like Winter) who report events from decades ago as if they are actual events?

To be more personal, I have heard others report of childhood memories. Am I weird because I cannot remember anything before my first decade?

BTW, I was not sure this was the right forum to post this in. If it should be elsewhere, would a Mod please move it? Thanks.

I have some very distinct memories from the age of 4 and possibly earlier. I have a number of memories associated with the house I lived in until just before my 5th birthday. I remember poking a garter snake with a stick in the garden and being bitten on the ear. I was told I was 3 when that happened. I also remember this which is fairly poignant for me - my grandparents lived in an apartment upstairs in the house I lived in up until the age of four. When my grandfather went to town he would invariably bring me back a Clark bar. I remember not particularly liking Clark bars, but not wanting to tell my grandfather so because I didn't want to make him feel bad. I actually have quite a lot of memories coming from before the age of five now that I think of it.

 

[Brown]

I have one very distinct memory of one of my grandfathers. He was inside his house, having just come through the front door. It was fairly sunny outside. He was speaking to someone in sign language.

According to my parents, he and I were best buds. I followed him everywhere.

He died when I was two-and-a-half years old.

My parents moved to a new house when I was two or three. Near the earlier house, there was an open green area with a slide. I remember enjoying the slide.

I have several memories of the newer house, my neighbors, the town, my brother's arrival, my pre-school (run by my mom and other mothers). These memories were all formed when I was four years old or less, as they occurred before our family moved to a new city.

 

[Moon-Spinner]

This is great, I love to think about the days when the world was so new, and we had no concept of the world outside our families.

I remember a family trip to Canada, and staying in a cabin. The most vivid memory I have of this trip was a drive to the dump, I was sitting on my mother’s lap in the front seat – There weren’t any seatbelt or child-safety seat laws in those days. I’m guessing I was around 2 years old (but now I’m fired up to investigate this and pinpoint the exact year).

 

[TragicMonkey]

I remember quite a few things from when I was three and four, although nothing before then. I hadn't realized I remembered so much until I started thinking about them.

The best one is at my fourth birthday party. It was held in the garage, where we dragged the picnic tables. (It was supposed to be an outdoor party, but being Wisconsin, it snowed the first week in May.) My dad sat me down on the concrete step up to the kitchen door, and told me to watch his beer to make sure my friends didn't drink any of it while he went inside for a minute. Since he only told me not to let them drink it, and said nothing about me drinking it, I figured it was okay for me to have a few sips. I drank the whole thing, about 3/4 of a can. I didn't get sick, but I did get on my bigwheel and start running into things and people.

Yes, I was a four year old drunk driver. Shocking!