PSYCH 140M Lecture Notes - Lecture 38: Episodic Memory, Psych
Document Summary
Infantile amnesia the inability to remember events and experiences from the first 2 or 3 years of life. Investigated capacity of child to remember birth of younger sibling . Subjects had had a sibling born when they were between 1-11 years old . Subjects were aged 4, 6, 8 or 12, or were college students . Mothers of children also tested as a check for consistency . Subjects asked 37 questions about details of birth. No reduction in amount recalled as a function of elapsed time since birth of sibling, even for mothers and college students. Children who were 3 years or younger when sibling was born had virtually no recall of the event. Children 3-5 years remember almost as much as older children. Clearly, infants have implicit memories before age of 3-yrs (e. g. learning to walk) As adults, we tend to have basically no episodic (declarative) memory from before the age of 2 or 3 years.
