1-164 - Your First Memory may be Earlier than we Thought: Evidence from Retrieval and Cohort Effects

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Despite continuing interest in the retention of early childhood experiences, the onset of autobiographical memory remains controversial. This symposium, representing research from three continents, provides insights regarding early childhood memories and suggests possible explanations for group differences in the reported age of earliest memories.

The authors of the first paper employed a think-aloud procedure to identify strategies emerging adults used to date childhood memories. Most strategies were ineffective, resulting in ages inconsistent with parents’ reports. Because previous work indicates that emerging adults post-date childhood memories, the paucity of effective retrieval strategies may result in under-estimates of the retention of early experiences. Further, the number of reported strategies differed between US and Canadian samples, likely reflecting differences in their experiences.

The second presentation also addresses retrieval processes. Reasoning that preschoolers have limited capacity for directed recall, the investigators observed children’s spontaneous reports of an experimenter-provided event during a return visit to the laboratory. Age did not influence the extent of information recalled spontaneously, whereas it did affect responses to directed questions. Additional experiments examined candidate contextual cues.

The third paper explores the correspondence among reported characteristics of first memories among daughter-mother-grandmother triads. There were intra-familial similarities in the rated characteristics of early memories, a finding attributed to the transmission of a consistent reminiscing style. However, a cohort effect was revealed; each generation reported a successively lower age of encoding for the earliest memories.

Taken as a whole, the findings provide reasons why existing estimates under-represent the retention of early life experiences.

Sub Unit

• Attention, Learning, Memory

Chair

• Lynne Baker-Ward, North Carolina State University

Discussant

• Patricia Bauer, Emory University

Individual Presentations

• Strategies for Dating Earliest Memories - Presenting Author: Carole Peterson, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Non-Presenting Author: Qi Wang, Cornell University

• Children's Earliest Memories: Could Spontaneous Retrieval be a Shortcut? - Presenting Author: Peter Krøjgaard, Aarhus University; Non-Presenting Author: Trine Sonne, Aarhus University; Non-Presenting Author: Osman Skjold Kingo, Aarhus University; Non-Presenting Author: Dorthe Berntsen, Aarhus University

• Intra-Familial Similarities and Cross-Generational Differences in the Earliest Childhood Memories of Three Generations of Women - Presenting Author: Basak Sahin-Acar, Middle East Technical University; Non-Presenting Author: Tugce Bakir-Demir, University of Otago; Non-Presenting Author: Elif Gizem Kus-Tursel, Uludag University