Just learned how early our first memories can actually form

I was listening to a podcast about memory and they said most people's first clear memory is from around age 3.5. But I found a study from the University of Newfoundland that showed some people can recall specific events from as young as two years old! That really made me think about my own earliest memory of my third birthday cake. Does anyone else have a super early memory that they're sure is real?

4 comments

4 Comments

lewis.finley3mo ago

That study about two-year-olds makes me wonder if smells or sounds trigger those early memories.

quinna893mo agoTop Commenter

Wait, they said two-year-olds? @lewis.finley, that's way earlier than I thought kids could remember anything.

wesleyb203mo ago

But what if those early memories aren't real? They could just be stories we're told so much that we feel like we remember them. The study might be picking up on that mix-up instead of actual recall.

markh851mo ago

Connect it to how people describe their own childhoods at family gatherings. Everyone swears they remember something from when they were barely walking, but half the time it's just a photo album story they've heard since they were five. That mix up is probably way more common than anyone wants to admit, especially in studies relying on self report.