Just curious. When do we start forming life long memories? How early in life? 1 year, 2 years, 6 months .....??? What is the earliest memory of your life? Was just looking through some pictures of my early life. My sister sent me the album when my mom's house was finally sold and I received it about a couple of days ago. There is one picture of me as a 4-5 month old baby and she as a 10 year old. I suddenly had a feeling I remember the frock she was wearing. Called to find out if I remembered the colour of the frock right. She was too busy watching a serial. Waiting for the response, but I can bet my last penny I remember it right. I remember the frustration and fear (of falling) trying to learn to walk, the fear when someone threw me up in the air and clinging to them when they caught me. I remember toddling up to mom demanding food from her plate even after she had given me my food - and pointing specifically at the brinjal sabzi in her plate. (I never have grown out of that larval stage .....) Makes me wonder. Is it really possible to remember so far back? If so, what is the earliest one can remember? P.S. Just got a call back and my memory was pretty close. Only the shade differed slightly.
This depends on person's ability to remember, so varies from person to person. Neurologists say that earliest memories can be from 2 years of age but there are many who say they remember experiences of them being in mothers' womb! I am not discounting your ability to remember things when you were 4-5 months old but perception of remembering the earliest incidents is one thing but actually remembering it accurately is another thing because your sister confirmed that shade of her frock was different than what you remembered Long-term memory is susceptible to such inaccuracies because people tend to forget important details about events. To fill those missing "gaps" in information, the brain sometimes fabricates details that seem to make sense but may not be accurate. In an experiment to test earliest memory, 25% of participants said they remember getting lost in a fair when they were infants while in reality, % who were actually lost was much much less and not 25%(which was confirmed by their parents or immediate family).
Dear Satchi, Your memory could be real. The earliest memory I have is of the time when I was 2.5-3 years. I can accurately recall many of those events even now. But I tend to forget recent events and names totally! I also agree with @Greenbay's post. Often, we build memories around the words we have heard, like parents recalling photographic details or recollecting some past events associated with our childhood. Repeated hearing and recalling also strengthens our mental image. This idea was used in the Malayalam movie, Drishyam! Many a times we do get carried away by someone else's experience read or seen on media. Our mind can always play such tricks.
I remember crying mouth full of big sugar candy (kalkandu). It was my ear piercing ceremony, 3-years old (explained by my mom). That choking was registered in my memory?
I remember getting punished in UKG for wasting food and was made to eat my lunch in front of the entire school with all kids watching..the school was small but with 60 to 70 kids looking at you when you are eating "thayir sadam"..i CAN NEVER FORGET THAT..
I remember when I was in LKG, some boys tied my braids to the chair, and when I got up .... ouch! Cant remember anything earlier.
There are plenty such incidents which I still remember . One incident was When my teacher asked me to write C alphabet as mirror image, I wrote it correctly and she praised me. May be this was in LKG. I remember looking at my senior in my school, Bahubali heroine - Anushka Shetty and admired her beauty then itself. I was in 1st standard that time .
It was some festival at home. Mother had dried the soaked wet rice to make some bakshanam. And as a toddler maybe 2 year old I wet the dried rice and mother became furious.... This is My earliest memory. Don’t ask what happened to those bakshanam. I guess it didn’t happen