1 - Special First Memories and Personal Memories

Some people solemnly swear they can clearly remember events from their earliest babyhood. Other people have the odd memory of episodes in their preschool days especially if the event was full of emotion—moving to a new house, death of a pet, an injury, or the birth of a new sibling. Many people can recall the drama of their first day of school. Other people stare blankly for a while and then say, “Well, I don’t remember anything until I was about 9 or 10 years old.”

The early memories we salvage have an interesting background. First, language is a key factor. Getting the memories into an oral language and being able to talk to someone about them is important for remembering. What about people who say that through hypnosis they are able to remember events from their early infancy? These are not accurate pictures. An infant does not possess a developed memory. Some people say they were able to understand a conversation that is beyond the capacity of a young child. In general, we usually do not store an event in our memory when we are at the pre-verbal stage before we have developed a basic language structure. Neurons play a central part in memory.

Neurons connect to other neurons and form cell assemblies. Memories derive from the interactions of cell assemblies. Young children cannot recall memories of their early childhood because the cell assemblies have not yet developed. Because no two cell assemblies are organized in the same way, each person’s cell assemblies are unique in that aspect.

Can you portray an accurate description of what went on as an adult looking back at childhood memories? In general, you cannot. If you find a diary from your earlier years, you may be quite astonished at the discrepancies between your view of the event as a young person and what you have stored in your memory as an adult. Would you want a perfect memory? Would you want every event that happened to you to be stored accurately and recalled with perfect detail and emotion? What about the pain of an event? We benefit from not having perfect memories and from memories that change or diminish over time.

Much of our lives are so boring and routine that they never get into our memories in the first place. For example, we get up, wash, dress, eat breakfast, and leave for school or for work. None of those everyday routines are memorable unless something unusual happens.

What can we do to keep our memories alive and fresh? Some memories just endure because we enjoy them; we talk about them. Family photo albums are important records and diaries help to keep memories fresh in our minds.

How Memories Form