Agreed.
Age of your earliest confirmed memory
- Thread starter Nerys Ghemor
- Start date
Agreed.
May 1977. Getting my first pet cat...a kitten in a box. I was two and a half years old. Before that I have no conscious memories. After 1977 I can recall lots and lots of things, but prior to then everything is a totally blank canvas.
Sometimes I have an experience that reminds me of a dream I've had, and the memory of the dream comes to me very powerfully. However, up until that point, I'd never had any knowledge about the dream at all.
It's very weird to have a memory about something you don't remember...
For example, I saw a carpark once that reminded me very strongly of a dream in which I was playing laser tag or something similar in a huge multi-storey carpark. However, up until the point that I was reminded of the dream, I had absolutely no conscious knowledge of it.
It's very weird to have a memory about something you don't remember...
For example, I saw a carpark once that reminded me very strongly of a dream in which I was playing laser tag or something similar in a huge multi-storey carpark. However, up until the point that I was reminded of the dream, I had absolutely no conscious knowledge of it.
^Those are called spontaneous memories, and they have a tendency towards accuracy, and the sense most tied to spontaneous memories is actually the sense of smell (which makes sense, as it was the first sense to evolve). Generally, and as with any memory, though, the more you think about them, the less accurate they become!
I have at least one distinct memory of being in my crib in my bedroom before the age of 2 (before I could talk very much). I was frightened by the shadows of the tree branches moving across my wall from the headlights of passing cars outside, but I wasn't able to express what was frightening me when my mom came to check on me, because I didn't have the vocabulary to describe it.
My mom confirmed that I was less than 2 because they moved my crib to the other side of the room before I turned 2, and I remember very clearly where the crib was located when it happened.
I have TONS of clear memories from age 2 on. I remember details about trips we took when I was 3 and 4 that my two older brothers can't remember at all.
ETA: Of course, now I'm 51 and I can't remember whether or not I had breakfast today ...
My mom confirmed that I was less than 2 because they moved my crib to the other side of the room before I turned 2, and I remember very clearly where the crib was located when it happened.
I have TONS of clear memories from age 2 on. I remember details about trips we took when I was 3 and 4 that my two older brothers can't remember at all.
ETA: Of course, now I'm 51 and I can't remember whether or not I had breakfast today ...
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Just came across another interesting study exposing the fallibility of human memory: researchers doctored childhood photographs of subjects to make it appear that they'd taken a trip in a hot air balloon. After viewing the photograph of themselves in the balloon the subjects then "remembered" the ride and described details of the memory to the researchers. What's more, they had difficulty accepting that the memories were false even after it was explained that the photos were artificial and that they'd never been in a balloon. We're really that easy to manipulate. Yikes.
Did the researchers ensure none of the subjects had ever been on a hot air balloon ride? One of them might forgotten and it clicked when viewing the picture. Some of them might be remembering riding one of those kiddie rides made to look like a hot balloon..?
^Yes, they controlled for that. If they hadn't it would have completely invalidated their results!
I love cracked.com!
I love cracked.com!
^I read about it in Richard Wiseman's book Quirkology , but a quick google search yielded the study: http://www.mccc.edu/~jenningh/Courses/documents/PSY101_journalpacket_2008_000.pdf
Yeah, it's not perfect, but it's a great website. Honestly, my best source of trivia these days comes from a failed comedy magazine.
I was riding a big wheel down my neighborhood in Vermont. I got a free ice cream coupon from the friendly police there because I had a helmet on.
^God, I miss my bigwheel! It was lavender, and I didn't wear a helmet. Though I did start wearing a helmet when I got my first Huffy -- to which I taped my Pocket Rocker. Ahhh...the 80s!
I only wore the helmet for the free ice cream. The neighborhood had a look out that would tell everyone when the police were there. They came certain days; wasn't hard to learn strategy.
The first movie I can remember going to see in a theater with my parents was in 1978 when I was about four. The film was the original Christopher Reeve SUPERMAN. I did go with my parents to a 1976 limited re-release of GONE WITH THE WIND but I had to be told about that incident a little later in life. That cinema trip predated my earliest confirmed memory by about a year.
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