Are Your Early Childhood Memories Actually False?
Do you all remember your earliest memory? When do you think that was?
I think for me it was around four.
What was it, if I may ask?
There was a couple things I remember, I remember riding a pony, and I remember sitting on Santa’s lap, and I remember a playroom that I had with these cows on the wall, so a number of different things that I can remember, three to four probably.
Just subtle, right? Yes, yeah.
Dr. Batra?
I was probably about two and a half to three, and I remember we had a long, steep driveway, and I remember going down it in my big wheel, and being terrified! But that it was a great, exhilarating super fun–
And that’s one of your first memories?
My first — absolute first memory.
It’s crazy because it’s similar to one of my first memories, but it was going down a hill at our house in Colorado, and I was on the grass, and I had training wheels, and I remember being completely out of control.
Did you crash?
No, no I didn’t–
There you are, look at you.
But I was probably closer to four.
Was that your Christmas time outfit?
Oh, yeah, because that’s at my grandparent’s house, we were getting pretty fired up, about to put on the ho-ho-ho suit. But what’s interesting about these memories is that a new study claims that if your first memory is before your second birthday, it’s probably a false memory, it’s probably a made-up memory. And, when they looked at this study, they surveyed over 6000 people about their earliest memories, and what age they had them. They found that 39 percent reported having their first memory before the age of two. But then they go on to say that most likely those, and again you think back to your youth, and it’s sometimes hard to remember exactly when it happened or how old you were. But I can tell you this, I don’t remember anything from when I was one year of age.
Like being–
But do you think that those false memories– Like being in diapers or being in a crib?
But I think that those false memories are engendered by us, right? Your family, your parents, I mean, my kids do this all the time, they’ll be like remember that time when, and you don’t remember that time. It’s because your dad and I always talk about it, that you remember this anecdote or this story. And so I think now, with all the photos we take, and all the phone cameras, we’re documenting every moment of their life, and then we’re re-visiting and talking about it, and we’re instilling this fake memory, whether they remember it or not. So I don’t think it’s really a false memory, they’re not making it up.
Did we show Dr. Batra yet?
That’s me, that’s my newborn picture.
You remember that?
No!
I was gonna say, oh yes, I remember that well! I had a great breastfeed that day!
Exactly, that’s like I was just born.
Did your picture come up, Drew?
I don’t think it’s come up yet.
Aww. Black and white, hahaha! That’s a while back.
You were a cute little boy, how old?
Like three. Three or four I think.
So sweet.
But it is interesting how with photo books you can go back in time and look at yourself before you even had a memory, and I could see how you could very quickly, oh yeah I remember at my second birthday, I got spaghetti sauce all over me. Well, the truth is I have a picture, in a bib, with spaghetti sauce all over me. But I don’t really remember it.
