My first memory

[Marduk]

I am told I have an exceptional memory, My ability to rattle of dates and facts seems second to none (present company excepted), I used this skill as an actor once as this ability was easily adapted to learning lines. But

My first memory takes place when I am less than 1 year old, I remember waking up in bed and catching my hair between the pillow and the headboard. I remember before this when it didn't happen and this memory strikes me that I remember it so well because it was
1) a new experience
2) traumatic
I think because as was the fashion in the early 70s for boys to have long hair, so mine wasn't cut til it was down to my shoulders and thats why I recall this at this point because it was the first time my hair had grown to a length where it could become trapped while I slept

anyone here know much about memory, I hear that its not possible to remember things until you have developed the words to recall them in.
is that true ?
I know for instance that I was less than a year old because we moved house then and these memories are from the "old place"

what are your first memories
and why do we remember them
thanks
;)

[LibraryLady]

I too am always told I have an exceptional memory.

My first memory is of my mother's shoes standing near our kitchen sink. I have no idea how old I was, but I have the impression I was crawling.

[Ixion]

My memory is good, and I remember the first sentence/phrase I spoke. I don't remember before that, although I had to have been speaking individual words. Funny, I don't remember a lot after that for several years either. It must have been a pretty memorable event.

The "sentence" was "Kitty on cards!". My mother had been playing solitaire and had dropped some cards while shuffling on the carpet. My parents' Persian cat had decided that was a perfect time to lay on top of them. I guess I thought it was the perfect time to point out the blatantly obvious to my mother. :p

[I Ratant]

Seeing a yellow airplane (Cub?) flying along the beach. 2 years old?
Getting scared by a fisherman and his fish on the same beach.
Nothing earlier.
And not much of the later stuff, any more. Sob!:(

[ToddH]

Kudos. I can barely remember things from last week, much less from when I was a child. I suspect having had a number of concussions probably didn't help matters.

[Professor Yaffle]

Most of our memories are no longer memories of the original event, but you are remembering the last time you remembered the event (or remembering the memory of the memory etc). That is one of the reasons memories can be so fallible - eg if the last time you remembered an incident, you weren't sure what colour car you saw, but you thought it might have been green, that will be incorporated into the memory, and the next time you remember the incident, you will see the car as green and will be absolutely sure because you can see it vividly in your head. Sometimes the memories will also incorporate details that come from other people discussing the incident that you didn't know at the time, but be consolodated into the memory so that you think that it was part of the way you saw it at the time.

Its funny comparing memories of childhood incidents with my siblings because there are often details that we can all recall vividly, but they don't match up with eachother. We all think it is the others who are misremembering because we are absolutely sure about it.

I suspect that very little of the very early memories we have are actually recalled from the original incident - most has been built up in the imagination from hearing about it etc and consolidated over many years.

[aggle-rithm]

what are your first memories
and why do we remember them
thanks
;)

I remember clearly when I was three and my family made a trip to Austin (where I now live). I can remember a cluster of little houses we "lived" in (actually a motel on I35), the huge, round building where all the important people met (the Capital building), the flight after flight of white stairs we walked on to get to the top (they are actually black; my memory was faulty), and the bridge we stood upon when my little brother threw his bottle off the side.

The part I don't remember is that one week after we visited, Charles Whitman unleashed hell on the UT campus. He was in shooting range of the motel we stayed at.

I have an earlier memory, of my younger brother's first birthday (he got a tricycle and a toy bear), but my memory may have been created by the pictures I saw years later.

[aggle-rithm]

Most of our memories are no longer memories of the original event, but you are remembering the last time you remembered the event (or remembering the memory of the memory etc).

Exactly! Some of the things I remember can't possibly be real memories, because they involved magical events. For instance, I remember making a toy train disappear, then finding it an a trash can days later.

[cornsail]

anyone here know much about memory, I hear that its not possible to remember things until you have developed the words to recall them in.
is that true ?

No. We don't primarily recall memories in words, AFAIK.

what are your first memories

I don't know whether my first memory is real for the reasons that Professor Yaffle brought up, but it corresponds to a story my parents have told me. I was 2 years old and I crawled out of the window of our apartment onto the roof of another building. It was very narrow out there, so I easily could have died. The part of it that is (seemingly) a memory is seeing my dad come out the window. I thought he looked happy or playful and I didn't want to him to pull me back inside.

and why do we remember them
thanks
;)

Good question. There isn't really a good answer yet.

[LibraryLady]

I have loads of false memories. I come from a family that puts a high value on telling a good story, and thus I "remember" a lot of things that happened before I was born.

The reason I think my mother's shoes are a true memory is that it is no action and so uninteresting.

[JoeTheJuggler]

anyone here know much about memory, I hear that its not possible to remember things until you have developed the words to recall them in.
is that true ?

I don't think that's true as much as it is that the development of language and the ability to form long term memories happens at roughly the same time. (I'm pretty sure I have some vague pre-lingual memories.)

I think my earliest memories are images and not words.

[Jack by the hedge]

My earliest "memory" from age 15 months is almost certainly false - a family story reinforced with a photograph.

The earliest specific events I confidently remember were from my little sister's birth when I was 2¾.

[Madalch]

I remember this thread.

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=132070

[Almo]

I remember a clear plastic ball with a butterfly on an axel in it. The butterfly would spin as you rolled the ball.

[jasonpatterson]

Three memories:

I was in a strange room, in a crib, on my back. The walls were blue and there was a picture on the wall. Years later I found out it was the room where the lady down the street babysat me when I was less than a year old.

In my yellow high chair, sitting on the landing and I fell down the stairs. It was fun in the memory, as opposed to fatal, so I imagine it was a dream.

I had to have been a bit older for this one, since I could definitely walk down the stairs. I came downstairs to my parents' bedroom and got freaked out because of a gorilla in the corner. It was a pile of blankets or coats or some such, but I was scared of it for a while.

[Praktik]

My first memory was also from the age of one, and I think this puts the lie to the "must have words to have memories" claim.

I was taken to Vancouver to visit family friends and we went to the beach - of the plane, the people we were visiting, everything pretty much - I have no memory.

But I do have an image. And I remember it being a rainy day, we were on the beach, and there being a puddle in the sand and there was a crab in it.

So my image is essentially of that of a crab in a puddle on a beach on a cloudy day.

and I think the reason this imprinted was cause a crab is, well, pretty wild to see for your first time!

The next earliest memory was from when I was 3 or so... sitting in a high chair and watching my mom desperately mopping water out of the front doorway cause a tornado was passing by, like, a block away.

That one is mostly an image memory too. And the reason I remember that is the trauma of being so close to a tornado. I've had recurring dreams about them my whole life actually, at least once a year or so...

[Thitical Crinker]

I was 29 months old when JFK was killed. I remember my mom answering the phone , then she broke down. The President being shot was no biggie. My mom crying is what scared me.

[Praktik]

Oh you know now you're bringing me back.. I was 6 by this time but I dont remember all that much from then, except my mom crying when the Challenger disaster happened.

[Pinkymcfatfat]

I'd have to say my memory is pretty good. When I was in college I worked at a busy, and rather large family restaurant. I easily knew 350+ people by name and could tell you what they probably would order etc, I can also name my entire kindergarten class, crazy stuff like that...

In my own childhood experience we had few family photos, and the 'cute' things the kids did really weren't topics of discussion. My first memory is of being in the early walking stage. There was a wicker bench on out porch that wasn't in the best of shape and it's leg suddenly fell off. I tried to wedge a small tricycle under it to make it look 'right'.

My oldest son is nine. He also has a pretty amazing memory. Although there are tons of photos in my house and the kids often are the topic of discussion. Occasionally, I like to bring up an event in his life and then ask what he remembers about it. More often then not, I also get a detail that I was not there for (like why he took apart all the spigots in the bathroom as a three year old).

I went to a psychotherapist of the Jungian school for a few years. It was her opinion that we did really have the memories of early childhood events.

[Praktik]

There's also invented memory.

I have kind of forgotten the contours of a few of mine but I remember believing certain things had happened that were a little bit fantastic... they were part of my reality though for a while until I grew a little older and realized that there was just no way that they in fact had happened.

dammit... wish I can remember the actual fake memories cause all I can remember is that I self-corrected a few times...

EDIT: ok - now I remember one. From when I was 5 or so. I'm a very vivid dreamer. Always have been. I believe this fake memory was from a dream. I dreamt I had a white poo with black spots on it, almost like a cow.

And the dream was so realistic I remember telling people it happened as if it was real.

Since I have not heard of anyone having a "cow-coloured poo", nor had one since, I realized some years later that there was no way that could have happened.

[Lucian]

Most of our memories are no longer memories of the original event, but you are remembering the last time you remembered the event (or remembering the memory of the memory etc). That is one of the reasons memories can be so fallible - eg if the last time you remembered an incident, you weren't sure what colour car you saw, but you thought it might have been green, that will be incorporated into the memory, and the next time you remember the incident, you will see the car as green and will be absolutely sure because you can see it vividly in your head. Sometimes the memories will also incorporate details that come from other people discussing the incident that you didn't know at the time, but be consolodated into the memory so that you think that it was part of the way you saw it at the time.

Its funny comparing memories of childhood incidents with my siblings because there are often details that we can all recall vividly, but they don't match up with eachother. We all think it is the others who are misremembering because we are absolutely sure about it.

I suspect that very little of the very early memories we have are actually recalled from the original incident - most has been built up in the imagination from hearing about it etc and consolidated over many years.

Some of my memories, or memories of memories, have changed in their nature over the years. I don't know if this is strange or if I can explain it properly. I'll use an example: one of my earliest memories is of being in my grandparents' front yard with my grandfather watching birds fly overhead. Quite mundane. I don't know how old I was, but my grandfather died when I was 3. The thing is, I know that this memory used to be a visual memory, but now it's a narrative memory--I remember the story. I mean, I can visualize the scene in the same way I can visualize a scene described in a book, but it's not the same as visually remembering it. A lot of my memories have gotten translated into stories in my little mind. I don't know if this is normal or if it's because I'm word-oriented or if I'm just nuts.

[Dogdoctor]

My earliest memories are all out of context so I am not sure which is my earliest one. The ones I seem to remember the best have to do with learning something. I remember riding in a coal/wood burning train and the floor was wooden and had burn marks all over it. When we went up a hill the smoke from the engine poured into the cabin and there were embers and I deduced that was where the burn marks on the floor came from (1 to 7 years old not sure because I rode a wood burning train twice). I lost my favorite toy and found it again (1 to 4 years old). I figured out how to get out of my room through the window (I am sure this was about 3 years old). Figured out to hide in my dads car so that I wouldn't be home alone with mom (1 to 3 years old). Figured out where my brothers were in school while I was home ( ran away at about 3 years old). I can recall thinking I was glad I wasn't in school. It didn't seem to be fun. Watched my older brother get pissed on by my younger brother. He ran his fingers around in the younger brothers mouth and said "Look Mom! No teeth!!" and younger brother who was waiting to have a new diaper changed, peed straight up in the air and onto older brothers face.
That one I remember only because it seemed like justice was served. I felt bad for my younger brother because older brother was violating his space.

[Aepervius]

I have a few memory I am not sure of when I had them... One is being in a bed, and blurred shadow over me(like a very blurry photo). Could be my parents or anything. But I am not 100% sure it is a memory or a dream. Anotehr I am put on my back and somebody inject me something it is very painful. I learned way later speaking to my parents it was when I was ~1and a half and quite ill. The next I am very young , in kindergarten. I have a lot of those (2-3 year old), then my first years in school. Then a HOLE of many years (mostly bad time).

The reason I am not sure the stuff I remember before 1 is a dream or memory, is because I darkly remember reading one cannot remember anything before 1 year or 2 year.

[Elaedith]

I have loads of memories from kindergarten (pre-school) where I went from about the age of two. I know that there is no way to demonstrate the memories are genuine. However, the only memories I have from this early are all trivial things at kindergarten so they are not anything I would have heard others talk about. They are also qualitatively different from later memories. The earliest memories are all in vivid pictures, like a series of freeze-frame shots, no narrative.
On the first day at kindergarten we went into the room where we had the afternoon naps. There were lots of cots in rows and each one had a different sticker on to identify who it belonged to. I was shown my sticker which was a picture of something and then it was put on the leg of the cot at my eye level. I was looking at it and the rest of the cot was above my head. I understood that this was going to be my cot. Somebody was explaining all this to me in the background, but there are no words in the memory.
I was later told that I was very upset the first day but I have no memory whatsoever of any emotions, just pictures.
Later memories from about the age of four onwards are quite different and they contain emotions and speech.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I remember this thread.

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=132070


Ha. You beat me to it. I do remember that thread. I'll have to check it to reconfirm my early memories. :D

[casebro]

My earliest memory was getting a bath in the kitchen sink. I'm now 5'15" and 1/7 ton. Long time ago. What I remember is Mom thought she got shampoo in my eyes because they were crying. It was really the smoke from her cigarette, in the ashtray, blowing past me to get out the open window. I have never smoked in 56 years.

[learner]

Mine was at 4 years old. My dad was a rag and bone man. He took me to work one day on what I believe was one of the last rag and bone horse drawn carts. Certainly round where I lived ( East london) I can remember being afraid of how high up I was and a woman coming out of her house with an old tricycle and throwing it on the back.
I remember the smell of the cart. My dad had just creosoted it. I still love that smell.

[JFrankA]

I was born in 1963. My earliest memory was seeing the Sound of Music. Err... I was crying when they were singing the "Goodbye" song. The movie came out in 1965, so I have the excuse that I was two years old at the time. :)

[I Ratant]

There's also invented memory.

...
.
Bridey Murphy.

[jmcvann]

I also remember this thread!

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=137161


My first memory was also from the age of one, and I think this puts the lie to the "must have words to have memories" claim.

<snip>But I do have an image. And I remember it being a rainy day, we were on the beach, and there being a puddle in the sand and there was a crab in it.

So my image is essentially of that of a crab in a puddle on a beach on a cloudy day. <snip>


No offense here, Praktik -- I only chose your post because I thought it a good example. My problem with your post is that there seem to be other very possible explanations for your "memory." I can easily imagine your parents later telling the following story: "Mary...do you remember that trip we took to Vancouver when little Praktik was just one. He saw that crab in a puddle and was sooooo fascinated by it. It was the most darling thing ever!"

You hear that story a few times and it morphs into a "memory."

It seems to me that many of the other "recollections" described in this thread could have similar beginnings.

Just my 2 cents....

[Dogdoctor]

I think some people have trouble remembering what they did yesterday. Some people don't. Certainly there are lots of possible explanations for any memory. The number of other possible explanations does not indicate that the memory is more likely to be false. It just means that we lack data to determine the accuracy of a memory and can imagine other explanations.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

This almost seems like it could be a false memory or something I saw on a very old home video in my childhood and took for a memory but I remember walking into my parents' room where my mother was lying in bed and feeding my baby sister and my mother becoming alarmed and shouting to my father, who was behind me, "Get her out of here! Get her out of here!".

If it is real and it actually happened, I must have been a little less than 2 years old at the time or pretty much 2 years old.

Other than that, I have no memories from early childhood. I lived in a tiny basement apartment till I was a toddler, before we moved to a better place down the block. And I think I very, very vaguely recall living in a small place that was old and brown.

However, when my parents pointed that basement apartment to me as a child when we walked by it and told me that we used to live there and talked about living there, I had no idea what they were talking about. So again, this might be a dream, the power of suggestion, photos and videos confused with real memories, etc.

I don't remember the birth of my sister, being one, being two, being three, my grandmothers visiting us, moving from one apartment to another, nothing that happened when I was a young child. My memories start at about preschool, which must have been when I was 4 or 5.

I recall little about my entire childhood, in fact. Huge holes there. It's like my memory of childhood was wiped near clean by the time I was a teenager. Which is odd cause I have a great memory for other things. People have told me that my memory is "scary".

Like Ingmar Bergman, I have few recollections of my personal life but remember just about everything else well.

[Praktik]

I also remember this thread!

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=137161




No offense here, Praktik -- I only chose your post because I thought it a good example. My problem with your post is that there seem to be other very possible explanations for your "memory." I can easily imagine your parents later telling the following story: "Mary...do you remember that trip we took to Vancouver when little Praktik was just one. He saw that crab in a puddle and was sooooo fascinated by it. It was the most darling thing ever!"

You hear that story a few times and it morphs into a "memory."

It seems to me that many of the other "recollections" described in this thread could have similar beginnings.

Just my 2 cents....

Ya Im not sure I can recollect ever being told a story about it.

To be honest the vancouver trip didnt really come up all that much.

I'm open to it being an invention of sorts, I've already described a dream turned false memory.

but in this case, that image of the crab feels legit. Could be wrong though... no way to tell really. Maybe I'll ask the rents if they recall me seeing a crab...

[Blackadder]

I am sceptic about one year old memory stories, for the simple reason the little child would not have the language available to think about things and store them in the memory.

Most of those are indeed form later events, parents telling you, photo's you saw as a child, etc.

[Marduk]

I am sceptic about one year old memory stories, for the simple reason the little child would not have the language available to think about things and store them in the memory.


my language training started when I was born, my mother was a teacher, how many words do I need to remember that I used to catch my hair in my bed

bed
hair
hurt

thats about it
:D

[bruto]

I have a few fleeting memories from before I was talking, or at least before I was talking coherently. I suspect it's possible to maintain a visual memory without words to describe it. I recall bringing up one such memory as a kid, in which I recalled having run around to the back side of the building we lived in, and my description was said to have been accurate of something that had not been described since. I have no reason to believe there was anything either special or suspect about this. It was a visual memory, and once visually recalled, I could describe what I had seen. The descriptive words were not necessary at the time I actually saw the place.

However, with so many of those early memories, there always arises a question of just what it is we're remembering. Once we've called back a memory and reported on it, it's hard to tell whether we're remembering the original event or the story we told of it. It may well be accurate and true, but our subsequent understanding and perspective are added to it.

[kellyb]

Could be false memory, but...

I remember being around 4, and remembering when I tried to climb out of my crib one night as a baby/toddler. I remember looking downward down one of the crib poles and thinking it looked just like the pole the firemen on a scene from Sesame Street slid down.
I remember being terrified of sitting on the "big potty" because it seemed plausible that I could get sucked down the drain if it flushed.

[jhunter1163]

My earliest memory is of being at a school, and someone at the school had a ventriloquist's dummy. He tried to show me how to use it, but I couldn't because my arm was too short to reach the handle that worked the mouth. My mom told me I was 18 months old when this happened.

[aggle-rithm]

EDIT: ok - now I remember one. From when I was 5 or so. I'm a very vivid dreamer. Always have been. I believe this fake memory was from a dream. I dreamt I had a white poo with black spots on it, almost like a cow.

And the dream was so realistic I remember telling people it happened as if it was real.

Since I have not heard of anyone having a "cow-coloured poo", nor had one since, I realized some years later that there was no way that could have happened.

Some of my earliest memories are also poo dreams!

I guess you dream about what you know.

I have a clear memory of my parents on the bathroom floor, examining a spherical piece of excrement that was bigger than a softball and dotted with peanuts. Supposedly, it was the product of my little brother's latest potty training efforts.

I know that could never happen, because my parents would NEVER examine a piece of poo. They would get rid of it immedietely and never speak of it again.

[Lisa Simpson]

I have a great memory for useless trivia, but a terrible memory for remembering sequences. I'm great at Trivial Pursuit, but useless at Simon.

My first memory is the Sylmar earthquake. I ran into my parents' bedroom when the shaking started and my dad was out of bed keeping a large mirror from crashing to the floor. I would have been four years, four months old.

[Praktik]

Some of my earliest memories are also poo dreams!

I guess you dream about what you know.

I have a clear memory of my parents on the bathroom floor, examining a spherical piece of excrement that was bigger than a softball and dotted with peanuts. Supposedly, it was the product of my little brother's latest potty training efforts.

I know that could never happen, because my parents would NEVER examine a piece of poo. They would get rid of it immedietely and never speak of it again.

Funnily enough I was relating this discussion to a coworker and he also had a fake memory from a poo dream... where he dreamt he essentially had a poo that was just as long as the bathtub, and thick too...

Of course being between the ages of 4 and 6, it would be quite the feat to lay a deuce that big..;)

[LuvGodzilla]

My first memory at just over a year old is the effect on my mother from the assassination news of JFK. I remember my mother dropping me on the couch (dropping) and falling to floor screaming and crying. I can even remember where the couch was in the living room and how my mother looked.

I have been told often that there is no way I could remember that as an infant and I disagree it could be a false memory, I've remembered it often since I was an infant.

A year later my oldest sister caught herself on fire with a candle while trying to turn on the television in the dark while Mom and Dad were sleeping. I was sitting right next to her on the floor in front of the TV.

I believe traumatic experiences can be remembered by very young minds.

[Modified]

My memory is good, and I remember the first sentence/phrase I spoke. I don't remember before that, although I had to have been speaking individual words. Funny, I don't remember a lot after that for several years either. It must have been a pretty memorable event.

The "sentence" was "Kitty on cards!". My mother had been playing solitaire and had dropped some cards while shuffling on the carpet. My parents' Persian cat had decided that was a perfect time to lay on top of them. I guess I thought it was the perfect time to point out the blatantly obvious to my mother. :p

Curious, that is also my earliest clear memory. I remember "figuring out" how to put the two words together, and understanding that it was I new thing I was doing. Also, my mother was very surprised and pleased, and gave me a cookie. The "sentence" was "Want cookie."

I do have earlier possible memories, but they are very vague.

My earliest memory of television is of Nixon announcing his resignation when I was four years old. I suppose it made an impression because of the reactions of my parents, though I don't remember what they were.

[borealys]

The earliest memory I have that I'm sure is real is of the day my sister was born. It was five days after my fourth birthday, and I was dropped off at the neighbours' house for the night (my sister was born around 1 am). I was sleeping in an upstairs guest room on a pullout couch. When my dad came to pick me up early in the morning, I pretended to be asleep and I totally fooled him hahahahahahahaaaaaah!

I do not have any clear memories of actually meeting my baby sister for the first time. Make of that what you will.

There are a few vague memories I have that, if real, are older, though I have my doubts about them. A bunch of kids sitting around a table at my fourth birthday party. The blue wallpaper in the farmhouse my grandparents once owned in Vermont. Flipping a light switch in the same grandparents' apartment in downtown Montreal. (Both the farm and the apartment were moved-out-of well before I hit five.) The only male teacher at my preschool dressing up as a woman for Halloween, complete with balloons stuffed down his shirt. My parents trying to pass off a Monchichi as a Care Bear because I really, really wanted a Care Bear and they couldn't find one. A low-ceilinged room with orange flower-printed wallpaper in the house we moved out of when I was two. Pulling a bunch of books off a shelf and onto my nanny's head.

[Modified]

...My parents trying to pass off a Monchichi as a Care Bear because I really, really wanted a Care Bear and they couldn't find one.

♪ Monchichi mon-chi-chi. Oh so soft and cuddly. ♪