Does priming lead to earlier memories, or just earlier dating of memories?

We investigated age-related differences and commonalities in earliest memories, focusing on retrieval speed, recollection type (remember vs. know), retrieval type (direct vs. generative), age at the time of the event, and phenomenological characteristics. The sample consisted of 131 adults: 68 young adults (48.5% males; Mage = 20.29, Sage = 1.53) and 63 older adults (47.6% males; Mage = 68.43, SDage = 4.11). They reported their earliest memories, estimated their age at the time, indicated recollection and retrieval types, and rated event characteristics (e.g., importance, vividness). Results showed that older adults were significantly more likely to classify their memories as remembered and directly retrieved, whereas young adults had a more balanced distribution of the classifications. Directly retrieved memories were accessed more rapidly than generatively retrieved ones, and young adults demonstrated shorter retrieval latencies than older adults. Additionally, older adults dated their earliest memories to later age and rated them as significantly more vivid, emotionally intense, and personally meaningful. Recollection type was not associated with retrieval latency but linked to higher vividness and confidence. Overall, our findings demonstrate potential age-related shifts in the retrieval and subjective evaluation of earliest autobiographical memories.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Once Upon a Time: Explaining Cultural Differences in Episodic Specificity

The process through which early memories are transferred to the cerebral cortex to form long-term memories is referred to as memory consolidation, and the basolateral amygdala (BLA) is an important brain region involved in this process. Although functional connections between the BLA and multiple brain regions are critical for the consolidation of withdrawal memory, whether the projection from the BLA to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in the formation or consolidation of withdrawal memory remains unclear. In this paper, we used a chemical genetic method to specifically label the BLA-ACC projection in a combined morphine withdrawal and conditioned place aversion (CPA) animal model. We found that (1) the inhibition of the BLA-ACC projection during conditioning had no effects on the formation of early withdrawal memory; (2) the inhibition of the BLA-ACC projection had no effects on the retrieval of either early or long-term withdrawal memory; and (3) the persistent inhibition of the BLA-ACC projection after early withdrawal memory formation could inhibit the formation of long-term withdrawal memory and decrease Arc protein expression in the ACC. These results suggested that the persistent activation of the BLA-ACC projection after the formation of early withdrawal memory facilitates the formation of long-term withdrawal memory by increasing the plasticity of ACC neurons.

BackgroundChildhood amnesia in adults can be defined as the relative paucity of autobiographical memories from the first years of life. An earlier study by Wessel, Schweig and Huntjens demonstrated that ‘how’ we ask for an earliest memory may bias adults’ estimations of when the earliest childhood memory actually happened. They suggested that snapshot memories (i.e., mental pictures) were less sensitive to an age manipulation than event memories (i.e. narratives). We aimed at replicating and extending these findings using a Dutch community sample stratified for age, gender and educational level.MethodParticipants (N = 619) were randomized into one of three experimental conditions. Prior to recalling their earliest memory, participants in the early and late conditions were presented with examples referring to memories from age 1–2 or 5–6, respectively. The example memories in the control group did not contain any age cues. Participants reported the estimated age in their earliest memory and their strategy for arriving at this estimate. They also rated their memory’s phenomenology (e.g. vividness). Independent judges rated memory type (e.g., snapshot memories).ResultsCompared to the control group, participants in the early condition estimated the age in their memory to be significantly earlier. The difference between the late and control conditions was too small to be of interest. We did not observe a statistically significant interaction between memory type and condition. Snapshot memories were from a younger age than event memories and showed differences with respect to phenomenology (e.g., emotional intensity).ConclusionThe results of this community study replicate earlier findings that instructions including age cues influence estimates of age in earliest memories. Although snapshot and event memories seem to be qualitatively different, the idea that they respond differently to an age manipulation could not be corroborated.

Based on the self-memory system model (SMS; Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004) of autobiographical memory, this study uses a large sample of young and middle-aged adults to investigate the relation between individuals’ current self-characteristics and the content of both their earliest childhood memory and a recent memory. In the first session, participants’ current self-characteristics were assessed. In the second session, individuals provided a written narrative of their earliest childhood memory and a more recent memory (within-participants design) and rated the self themes present in each memory. In keeping with the SMS model, findings show that current self-characteristics were reflected in individuals’ memories. As predicted, however, recent memories were more frequently linked to current self-characteristics than were earliest memories. All six current self-characteristics predicted the inclusion of these themes in recent memories, but only four self-characteristics were associated with memory themes in earliest memories. The relation between current self-characteristics and memory themes did not differ across young and middle-aged adults, suggesting developmental stability in these relations. Findings provide general support for the SMS model but also suggest possibilities for its extension and refinement.

When adults are asked to recall their earliest autobiographical memories most can recall nothing about their infancy and early childhood, a phenomenon commonly referred to as childhood amnesia. There is general consensus regarding the existence of childhood amnesia, but there remains considerable debate over its boundary. Most researchers have argued that the boundary of childhood amnesia occurs between the ages of 3 and 4 years, but in 1993 Usher and Neisser published a highly influential paper, which has subsequently been used to argue that the boundary may be as low as 2 years. In the present experiment we examined how changes in scoring criteria influence our estimates of the age of adults’ earliest memories. We conclude that some coding criteria are more valid than others and that the best estimates of childhood amnesia will include measures of free recall in addition to the specific questions that have dominated prior research in this area.

For more than a century, psychologists have debated the age of adults’ earliest memories. To date, estimates have ranged from 2 to 6–8 years of age. In this experiment, we examined how the nature of the question used to elicit early memories influenced the age from which memories were retrieved. Young adults provided written descriptions of autobiographical memories and estimated their age at the time of each remembered event. One group was asked to report their six earliest memories. Three other groups were asked to describe memories associated with particular cue words. They were asked to report memories from any time in their lives, to report childhood memories, or to report their earliest memory associated with each word. When participants were asked to report their earliest memories, there was no effect of cue words on the ages of the memories reported. When participants were asked to sample different epochs of their lives, however, the age of the memories they reported differed substantially: asking participants to recall early memories yielded a higher density of events that occurred during the traditional childhood amnesia period. Thus, many early childhood memories may remain available, but may be less accessible than later memories. These data show that the way in which we ask adults to report their early memories affects the age of the memories that are reported, and thus influences the conclusions that may be drawn about the boundary of childhood amnesia.

Culture and gender influence adults’ ability to retrieve early memories. Previous research has mainly focused on White and Asian samples, leaving Black Americans understudied despite distinctive socialisation practices that could influence memory retrieval within and across gender. This study examined memory retrieval in Black (n = 97, 67% female) and White (n = 98, 77% female) participants (Mage = 21.65 years). Participants were given five minutes to recall memories from their first five years. They then estimated their age at each event and rated the memories on various dimensions. We hypothesised that Black participants and women would retrieve more and earlier memories and rate them as more robust but less independently remembered, with more pronounced gender differences in the White sample. Results partially supported our hypotheses. Black participants recalled more memories, marginally earlier first memories, and rated their memories as more important and independently remembered than White participants. White men reported the lowest scores for memory rehearsal and vividness. These patterns also varied by memory age. This study is the first to compare early memory retrieval between Black and White Americans using a memory fluency task, revealing previously undocumented autobiographical memory differences.

Infantile amnesia, the inability of adults to recollect early episodic memories, is associated with the rapid forgetting that occurs in childhood. It has been suggested that infantile amnesia is due to the underdevelopment of the infant brain, which would preclude memory consolidation, or to deficits in memory retrieval. Although early memories are inaccessible to adults, early-life events, such as neglect or aversive experiences, can greatly impact adult behavior and may predispose individuals to various psychopathologies. It remains unclear how a brain that rapidly forgets, or is not yet able to form long-term memories, can exert such a long-lasting and important influence. Here, with a particular focus on the hippocampal memory system, we review the literature and discuss new evidence obtained in rats that illuminates the paradox of infantile amnesia. We propose that infantile amnesia reflects a developmental critical period during which the learning system is learning how to learn and remember.

Two studies investigated the earliest memories of New Zealand European young adults (N = 80, Study 1 and N = 120, Study 2) from separated and non-separated families. Participants' earliest memories were assessed for age, for density (how far apart the memories were, Study 2) and for narrative coherence of the memories. Questionnaires were designed to investigate the role of changes in family structure, for example, in the number of adults in the participants' households and the timing of the parental separation. Study 2 further investigated stress and painful divorce-related feelings as additional variables in adjustment after divorce. No overall differences in age of earliest memory emerged between young adults from separated and non-separated parents. Within the group from separated parents, however, memories were earlier when parents separated early in the child's life (<age 7), which related to having extended family ties and more coherent memory narratives from early childhood (Study 2). Participants from separated families reported earlier but sparser memories when they reported higher levels of stress and painful feelings about the separation. The development of early autobiographical memories and the offset of childhood amnesia are discussed via transition and social interaction theories of autobiographical memory.

Precuneus stimulation alters the neural dynamics of autobiographical memory retrieval

This study examined the age and content of earliest childhood memories of self and others. European American and Taiwanese participants (N= 111) retrieved their earliest memories in response to the cue words self, mother, family, friend, and surroundings. Memory for mother was from an earlier age than memory for self, and memories for mother, family, and friend were more socially oriented in content than memories for self or surroundings. In addition, in response to all cue words, Euro-Americans recalled memories from an earlier age than did Taiwanese. Euro-Americans also had a greater tendency to report memories of specific events and focused more on their own roles and autonomy than did Taiwanese, who more often described routine events and emphasized the roles of others. These findings have important implications for infantile amnesia and the memory-self interplay.

Extensive studies of Drosophila mushroom body in formation and retrieval of olfactory memories allow us to delineate the functional logic for memory storage and retrieval. Currently, there is a questionable disassociation of circuits for memory storage and retrieval during Drosophila olfactory memory processing. Formation of the initial aversive olfactory memory involves mushroom body γ lobe, whereas α/β lobes are reported to be necessary for the retrieval of such memory. In contrast, formation and retrieval of the short-term appetitive olfactory memory appears to involve γ lobe. With the help of newly identified Gal4 lines and of focusing on 3-h memory for both aversive and appetitive conditionings, our reexamination of the retrieval of aversive and appetitive olfactory memories suggests a new view. Blocking γ lobe output led to severe deficiency of aversive early memory retrieval and partial impairment of appetitive early memory retrieval. Interrupting α/β lobe output impaired the retrieval of both aversive and appetitive early memories. The contribution of the γ lobe and α/β lobes appeared to be additive for the retrieval of appetitive early memory. Thus, these results suggest that the retrieval of aversive and appetitive olfactory early memories requires the synaptic outputs from both γ lobe and α/β lobe neurons. This discovery may help us to rethink how aversive and appetitive memories are processed from memory formation to memory retrieval.

Adolescence is a critical developmental period associated with an increased variety of interrelated risks and vulnerabilities. Previous studies have found associations between early memories of warmth and safeness, as well as emotion regulation, and self-harm and suicidal ideation in adolescence. Additionally, these early emotional memories have been found to be positively linked with some indicators of emotion regulation during this period. The present cross-sectional study extends prior research by exploring the moderating role of emotion regulation in the relationships between early memories of warmth and safeness, as well as each of the following risk-related outcomes in adolescence, in younger (i.e., 13–15) and older (i.e., 16–19) adolescents: suicidal ideation and self-harm and its associated functions (i.e., automatic and social reinforcement. Three self-report measures of these early emotional memories, emotion regulation, and risk-related outcomes, and a sample of 7918 Portuguese adolescents (53.3% females), with ages ranging from 13 to 19 (Mage = 15.5), were used. In both age groups, at high levels of emotion regulation, early memories of warmth and safeness had a greater (negative) effect on suicidal ideation and the automatic reinforcement function of self-harm, compared to at average and low levels of emotion regulation. These findings highlight the enhancing role of emotion regulation on the associations between early memories of warmth and safeness and some risk-related outcomes in adolescents, both younger and older, which reveals the relevance of targeting emotion regulation when preventing or tackling these outcomes, regardless of adolescents’ levels of early memories of warmth and safeness.

My earliest memory—was I two? three?—is of a nurse or babysitter who was dressed in white and had a bad smell. When she came into my room, I would pretend to be asleep. She looked down at me (I could sense her presence), then, satisfied by my closed eyes and quiet, if shallow, breathing, would turn and leave the room. Soon her odor would go away, too, and I could breathe deeply again. This taught me a lesson of dubious value: when helpless in a situation, pretending can give you power. I, a small, weak child, had controlled the movements of an enormous, smelly adult. It was some time later, I suppose, when I learned that pretending usually doesn’t work. Although I can’t recall the time or place, I know that on one grim day of disillusionment and reckoning I discovered that when I closed my eyes I didn’t become invisible; I couldn’t transport bullies to distant, foul places by imagining them there or alter the course of unwelcome events by pretending they were otherwise. Healthy children come to know the difference between pretending that is relaxing, stabilizing, healing, necessary—we call it fantasy—and pretending that is dangerous. A hot fire burns, even if we pretend that it won’t. In our personal lives most (but not all) of us learn to instantly distinguish harmless from harmful pretending, so we do not pretend in away that endangers our lives or physical well-being. Strangely enough, society as a whole is a different story. For at least the past fifty years, probably longer, we have been working hard as a high-tech civilization to ignore the limits of safe pretending, even to blot them out of our collective memory. And the more obvious the warning signals, the more blatant our pretending has become. A few examples will make the point. The first example is genetic engineering. In the late 1950s, I was fortunate to have as one of my teachers a visiting professor from England, Francis Crick of Watson and Crick fame, who taught part of an upper-level biochemistry course on the structure of macromolecules, especially desoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.