Some evidence has been found that could support the repression theory. This would lead to the repression of the majority of the first years of life (Gleitman, et al., 2004). In what is now published as The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Freud theorized that childhood amnesia is the result of the mind’s attempt to repress memories of traumatic events that, according to Freud, necessarily occur in the psychosexual development of every child. Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychosexual development are highly intertwined with childhood experiences, and Freud’s explanation of childhood amnesia is one of the most controversial. It is worth noting that many of these theories are highly controversial and the true nature of childhood amnesia is still being debated. Some of the most notable are described here to aid in understanding what childhood amnesia may be. Since Miles first officially documented childhood amnesia as a psychological phenomenon, many theories of its causes and character have been developed. But when asked about an event they could not possibly have a memory of, the subjects showed they had no problem with telling apart knowledge of an event and a memory of the event, suggesting something peculiar about the false memories observed in childhood amnesia (Eacott, et al., 1998). They found that participants’ memories of this time were also characterized by consistent false memories. Another example is Eacott & Crawley’s study which found support for childhood amnesia in the very few memories their subjects recalled from before the age of 2 ½. For example, one recent study compared childhood and adult memories and found surprisingly few substantive differences, despite expected differences in the emotional vs factual and episodic vs non-episodic content of the memories (West, et al., 1999). Much research in this area today aims to identify new characteristics and possible explanations for the phenomenon. But it was Sigmund Freud who offered one of the first, most famous, and most controversial descriptions/explanations of childhood amnesia when he tied the phenomenon in with his other psychological theories (Freud, 1916 Bauer, 2004). Stanley Hall noted the phenomenon in his book Adolescence (Hall, 1904). ![]() Thus, researchers often use for their studies memories like the birth of a sibling that can be easily verifiable (Usher, et al., 1993).Ĭhildhood amnesia, despite being the universal human experience that it is, was only first formally studied in 1893 by the psychologist Caroline Miles (Miles, 1893 Bauer, 2004). It is worth noting, however, that memories of subjects are often unreliable but are nevertheless an important part of research in this area. Much research has been and continues to be conducted about childhood amnesia, adding to the wealth of evidence that is available about this phenomenon. Children do remember events however, these memories accessible as children are lost to infantile amnesia in adulthood (Bauer, 2004 Fivush, et al., 1987). Research has demonstrated that children are adept learners and are quick to acquire and retain information. Additionally, the boundary is malleable and can be influenced by both individual experiences (Usher & Neisser, 1993) and cultural factors (Wang, 2001). It is important to note that the term does not refer to complete absence of memories, but the relative scarcity of memories during infancy - a scarcity that cannot be accounted for by a forgetting curve. Infantile, or childhood amnesia is characterized by the relative absence of memory before 3 or 4 years of age.
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