Infantile Amnesia Research Paper

Earliest Memories and Explanations for Infantile Amnesia Recent research in psychology has explored the various theories about early childhood memories and infantile amnesia, and how these theories could possibly explain why adults have been unable to remember little to nothing before the ages of 3.5 to 4 years. Unlike the name of this phenomenon, infantile amnesia goes beyond the memories of infancy and inhibits the recollection of memories created for the first 2.5 years of life. Although most adults can recall memories for events that have happened during the ages of 3 and 6 years, very little information can be remember in comparison to memories recalled after 6 years (Bjorklund, 2012). According to David F. Bjorklund (2012), infantile amnesia could be attributed to the lack of ability to create autobiographical memories at such a young age. Autobiographical memories are long lasting memories that are the foundation of individuals’ life accounts (Bjorklund,

Freud believed that children who experienced infantile amnesia had been children that had repressed inappropriate sexual thoughts of one’s mother. However, not many theorists have agreed with Freud’s sexual overtones and instead believe infantile amnesia can be attributed to more cognitive explanations (Bjorklund, 2012). One cognitive explanation that has received some attention has been the idea that infants and toddlers, compared to older children and adults, encode information differently, which could affect the way infants and toddlers organize and store memories. Psychologists like Jean Piaget have observed how the nature of representation within childhood significantly changes from infancy to late childhood (Bjorklund, 2012). This change could explain why reconstruct memories recalled with adult schemes can become a problem when trying to remember events and experiences created during infancy and early