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Age when childhood memories fade


Still Waters

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Most adults struggle to recall events from their first few years of life and now scientists have identified exactly when these childhood memories fade and are lost forever.

A new study into childhood amnesia - the phenomenon where early memories are forgotten - has found that it tends to take affect around the age of seven.

http://www.telegraph...ories-fade.html

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i remember from around the age of 18 months when my brother was born x

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ha! i got both of you beat! i can barely remember any of my childhood at all!

i guess i don't actually have both of you beat

... and now i'm sad.

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A fun game to play is trying to recall your earliest memory. Think of a really old one, and just keep thinking about that timeframe. You might surprise yourself..

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I remember a lot about kindergarden and first grade.... (age 5 to 7.5) .. i was in love with my kindergarden teacher .. Miss Underhill :wub:

She had beautiful golden brown hair .. glasses... and a body to graduate for! ... and upon further reflection, beautiful green eyes,, how's that for faded memories?

Edited by lightly
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When I was a teenager, I asked my Mom if we ever rode a train, because I vividly remember looking out the window of a moving train. She told me there was no way I could remember that because I was only about 2 months old ! But, I do. It's kind of like a snapshot in my mind, rather than a video.

It's the same way with my Father, who passed away when I was three. I have numerous "snapshots" in my mind of doing different things with my Dad.

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"snapshot" .. ya that describes them pretty good. I think maybe we sort of update the memories as we recall them ?

I remember having to go to the neighbors house after kindergarden (yuk!) ... till Grampa moved in... then i remember coming home and making he and i a can of chicken noodle soup for lunch! ... i also remember him smoking cigars at the picnic table, and sitting in a chair in the living room ,with whiskey breath.

.. I also remember him calling by sister Kathleen... Katty! lol all from age 5.

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My earliest memory I manage to recall was I'm lying down on a bed in a pink-colored room with a curtain facing the other side. Could been a hospital (UCLA diagnostic in L.A.) where I was diagnosed with autism in age 4. My Mom recollectively remembered what she was told I couldn't do by these neurologist doctors: ride a bike, have a job and recognize my Mom in a room full of women. It turns out they were just flat-out wrong.

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I remember sneaking out of the house to see my grandfather before he went to work one morning, he lived next door to us, and he picked me up and carried me back home, I was 3 or 4 at the time.

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I have many memories from my childhood,my first temptation,the first time that I was embarrassed,the first mouse I killed.As a child before school age we didn't have daycare and most everyone's mom was at home so I was free to roam about my neighborhood because everyone knew who's child you were and mothers would just stand at the back door and call for you and even if you were blocks away you could hear a chorus of women telling where they saw you or where you were. Ahh those were the days.

jmccr8

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I remember being carried around by my mother in the frontpack.

In my early 20s now.

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Here is a meditative technique I've used to recall memories f. After bringing yourself to a relaxed stated think about where you are in life, whats going on, your job your friends etc. Then subtract 5 years from your age and think of what was going on then. Then subtract another 5 years etc....I was amazed at how clearly I could recall memories form very early childhood.

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First day at school (5 yrs old), I lasted from 9a.m. until mid-morning break at 10.30 a.m then went home thinking my education was finished.(I've never been the same since)

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LOL. .. ahyes, ya did a fine job spud... here's yer diploma :P

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I'm 60 years old and I have very vivid memories of my childhood, many from under 3 years old. I know the ages because I can picture where we lived and we moved just before my third birthday. I remember the color of the walls and the texture of the wood floor in the pantry. I remember my Grandparents bringing me pretzels from a street vendor after Mass on Sunday. My Mother is 83 and we talk frequently. When the subject comes up I'm able to confirm my childhood memories with hers as a young adult. Some are snapshots as another contributor mentioned but others are animated. Oddly, I don't always see them from a first person perspective but I see the whole scene as if from somewhere above or to the side. One of the most vivid is when some other kids opened the gate to our yard and I took off with them. I was 2 years old, nearly 3. We lived about a block from the railroad tracks and three of us kids were running down the street toward a moving train with my Mom frantically trailing after us. I can still see her in a dress and apron and me in overalls. Funny, I don't remember being caught. But don't ask me about yesterday, I have trouble remembering that.

Edited by Big Jim
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I remember alot of my childhood very vividly. I think the earliest memory I have is when I was about 2-3. I was in my baby carriage going to my old apartment. I remember the color of it, which was a Burgundy red and the material from the carriage was made out of corduroy and I remember that day because it was really cold out. I have a few memories from earlier times but they are very spotty.

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So according to this forum, the study is not accurate?

God forbid anyone would suggest a study could be wrong.

It’s the freaky coincidence – they obviously managed to interview only people with rare form of amnesia. Whose earliest memories were erased at approximate age of 7.

I remember my great-grandmother who died when I was 2 years old.

I clearly remember the day she died. I remember being baptised, but since the situation was complicated I wasn’t baptized as early as it’s customary over here, I was probably about a year old.

I have foggy and fragmented memories from my earliest childhood, but since I have very clear memory of my later childhood, I guarantee my earliest memories didn’t fade around 7. They are the same now as they were before I was 7. What I don't remember now I couldn't fish out of my brain before I was 7, either.

So, no, the study is not wrong. Just like, for example, the studies that proved humans can dream only in black and white, were not wrong. They simply talked to too few people who happened to be weird and not representing of the average humans.

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