Infantile Amnesia: Why Can't We Remember Our Early Years?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsExamples of Infantile AmnesiaMemory DevelopmentNotable Research and FindingsChildhood Memory RetentionWhat We Still Don’t Know

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Examples of Infantile Amnesia

Memory Development

Notable Research and Findings

Childhood Memory Retention

What We Still Don’t Know

Close

Experts aren’t completely sure what causes infant amnesia, though it’s probably a mix of biological and psychological mechanisms. It’s important to keep in mind that it’s not that children aren’t learning or having experiences during this time, but that very little of what happens can be recalled. Although it’s more likely to remember events after the age of three or four, experts have found that memories are easily forgotten up to the age of seven or so.

Read on for what to know about infantile amnesia, including examples, causes, factors influencing our early memories, what the research says, and possible directions for further research.

Reasons Why People Forget

Experts in This ArticleMarissa Moore, LPC, counselor and mental health consultantRobert Kraft, PhD, professorSumeet Kumar, PhD, geneticist

Experts in This Article

Marissa Moore, LPC, counselor and mental health consultantRobert Kraft, PhD, professorSumeet Kumar, PhD, geneticist

Instances of infantile amnesia include not remembering your first birthday party, or not remembering the day you took your first steps. You are also unlikely to remember less significant events or circumstances, such as what your favorite toys looked like, what color your nursery was painted, or what foods you ate as a toddler.

“An example of infantile amnesia might be a situation where an individual, as an adult, is unable to remember specific events or experiences from their life before the age of three,” says Marissa Moore, licensed professional counselor, LPC, and mental health consultant writer atMentalyc. “They might have some vague feelings or fleeting images related to that time, but they can’t recall details or events with clarity.”

How to Improve Memory Effectively

The Development of Memory in Early Childhood

So why exactly do we have such trouble remembering our early childhood years? Researchers aren’t entirely sure why it happens, but there are several dominant theories that have evolved over the years. Here’s what to know.

Freud’s Theory

Cognitive Theory

Cognitive psychologists have theorized that our more personal and autobiographical memories from early childhood fade because we haven’t yet acquired the skills to remember them.

First of all, when we are little, we haven’t fully developed our language skills yet, and this may impact how well we remember things. “A lack of well-developed language and narrative skills during infancy makes it challenging for children to encode and store memories in a coherent and retrievable form,” says Moore. “Memories are often stored in the context of narratives, and without these linguistic tools, the memories might not be retained well.”

Furthermore, a small child’sidentityis not centered around the importance of memory—it’s not something they’ve been taught to focus on yet, saysRobert Kraft, PhD, professor of cognitive psychology at Otterbein University. Young children aren’t that interested in memory; they mostly just live in the moment, he says. But then eventually, they learn that remembering experiences is a skill to master.

“When parents start reminiscing about past vacations or when they start asking questions about what happened at a friend’s house, toddlers learn that remembering is something adults do and something that should be practiced and learned,” Dr. Kraft says.

Biological Factors

Just like our body grows and matures as we get older, so does our brain, and it may be that when we are young, our brains haven’t yet matured in a way to store and retrieve memories. Researchers believe that the part of the brain called the hippocampus, where we process and store memories, plays a role in infantile amnesia.

Infantile amnesia is thought to be connected to the underdevelopment of memory-related brain structures like the hippocampus, says Sumeet Kumar, PhD, geneticist and founder ofGeneswellness.com. “Around age four, the hippocampus matures, and there’s a change in the number of synapses pruning away unnecessary connections, possibly causing memory loss,” he explains.

How to Forget Something On Purpose

Notable Research and Findings in the Field of Infantile Amnesia

Besides the above theories about what causes infantile amnesia, there have been some other interesting bits of research over the past few years about why infantile amnesia occurs and how it might impact us as we get older.

Here are some of the notable findings.

Mobility Might Be a Factor

A 2016 article published inFrontiers in Psychologytheorized that the fact that infants and toddlers are less mobile than older children impacts their ability to retain memories. “In brief, when an animal cannot self-locomote, there is no opportunity for hippocampal place and grid cells to be tuned to the environment,” the authors hypothesize.

The authors explain that memories become stronger and more available after humans go from crawling to walking. Even more developed memory abilities occur as humans are able to physically explore more geographically expansive and diverse environments, according to the authors.

“Neural Trace” Theory

Do all of our early experiences just vanish into thin air or are theyretainedsomewhere in our brains? A 2014 review published inLearning and Memorydiscussed the theory that although we may not remember most of the details from our early years, it’s likely that hints or shadows of these memories remain in our brains in some form or other. In their review, the authors propose that a “neural trace” of our early memories stays in our brain even when we can’t elicit or describe the memory.

Why Can’t I Remember My Dreams?

Factors Influencing Memory Retention in Childhood

“We tend to remember events that have consequences for our lives, including events that help strengthen (or weaken) family bonding,” says Dr. Kraft. “We remember emotional events and perceptually stimulating events.”

For example, Dr. Kraft says, you may vividly remember getting lost in a grocery store when you were four years old. Maybe you remember running up and down the aisles, calling, “Mommy, Mommy!”

“You might remember this now simply because it was a first or because it was emotional,” Dr. Kraft says. “Or you might remember it because you now have abandonment issues and this memory supports your fear of being abandoned.”

Infantile Amnesia: Why Can’t We Remember Our Early Years?

Unanswered Questions and Future Research Directions in Infantile Amnesia

While we do have some research on infantile amnesia, experts hope that more studies will be done so that we can understand the phenomenon better.

“Despite existing research, we still have many unanswered questions,” says Dr. Kumar. “Further studies are needed to understand the exact causes of infantile amnesia, factors influencing its ending age, mechanisms of early memory loss, the role of language, and its relation to other forms of memory loss, such as trauma-induced amnesia.”

Moore hopes that researchers will also look at cross-cultural variations, and how culture and socialization affects the formation and retrieval of early memories. She also wants to know how our early memories—or their absence—might affect us on a long-term basis and what impact this may have on our psychological development.

How Chunking Pieces of Information Can Improve Memory

5 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Perdikogianni M, Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous X.Infantile Amnesia. Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_1484Glenberg AM, Hayes J.Contribution of Embodiment to Solving the Riddle of Infantile Amnesia. Frontiers in Psychology. 2016;7:10. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00010Alberini CM, Travaglia A.Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember. Journal of Neuroscience. 2017;37(24):5783-5795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017Alberini CM, Travaglia A.Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember. Journal of Neuroscience. 2017;37(24):5783-5795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017Li S, Callaghan BL, Richardson R.Infantile amnesia: forgotten but not gone. Learning and Memory. 2014;21(3):135-139. doi:10.1101/lm.031096.113

5 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Perdikogianni M, Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous X.Infantile Amnesia. Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_1484Glenberg AM, Hayes J.Contribution of Embodiment to Solving the Riddle of Infantile Amnesia. Frontiers in Psychology. 2016;7:10. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00010Alberini CM, Travaglia A.Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember. Journal of Neuroscience. 2017;37(24):5783-5795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017Alberini CM, Travaglia A.Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember. Journal of Neuroscience. 2017;37(24):5783-5795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017Li S, Callaghan BL, Richardson R.Infantile amnesia: forgotten but not gone. Learning and Memory. 2014;21(3):135-139. doi:10.1101/lm.031096.113

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Perdikogianni M, Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous X.Infantile Amnesia. Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_1484Glenberg AM, Hayes J.Contribution of Embodiment to Solving the Riddle of Infantile Amnesia. Frontiers in Psychology. 2016;7:10. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00010Alberini CM, Travaglia A.Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember. Journal of Neuroscience. 2017;37(24):5783-5795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017Alberini CM, Travaglia A.Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember. Journal of Neuroscience. 2017;37(24):5783-5795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017Li S, Callaghan BL, Richardson R.Infantile amnesia: forgotten but not gone. Learning and Memory. 2014;21(3):135-139. doi:10.1101/lm.031096.113

Perdikogianni M, Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous X.Infantile Amnesia. Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_1484

Glenberg AM, Hayes J.Contribution of Embodiment to Solving the Riddle of Infantile Amnesia. Frontiers in Psychology. 2016;7:10. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00010

Alberini CM, Travaglia A.Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember. Journal of Neuroscience. 2017;37(24):5783-5795. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0324-17.2017

Li S, Callaghan BL, Richardson R.Infantile amnesia: forgotten but not gone. Learning and Memory. 2014;21(3):135-139. doi:10.1101/lm.031096.113

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?