What age were you in your oldest memory?

Dec 25, 2017, 01:09 PM

I remember preschool (somewhere between age 2.5 and age 4). Only 1 memory, which is about a boy being sent to the couch for something and he was crying and pounding his hands onto the armrest.
First memory I can specifically date is 9/11, I was 4,5 then. It was the early afternoon, I'd just gotten home from school, sitting on the coffee table before the TV where the Towers were showing. My mother was on the phone with her mother (my grandmother) pacing between the TV and the table I was sitting on.

I'm 20. I don't have a lot of memories; I had ECT done (2014-2015, 51 treatments) and that pretty much wiped away most of my episodic memory.
I don't remember having a leg anymore. I only have 3 memories of my grandfather (died 2012) - 1 when I was really young, and 2 in the last months of his life. Nothing that showed him in his 'prime' asides from that first one.
Only have 1 memory of my paternal grandparents pre-2014. (They both died last month and it really sucks not to have to remember. At the funeral, some said "Remember grandpa was always saying x?" and I'm like.. no, I don't..)
Don't remember my friends. I remember their names and faces, but I don't really have any memories of them anymore. Makes conversation awkward.

So I'm probably not a good measure.

-jimi- · Dec 25, 2017, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizardlady

I was told in grad school that we can not form memories until we have language. I thought horse hockey! My real early memories are more visual than word oriented.

++++
just reread what I wrote above and thought I might come across as arguing with you. Not arguing with you, just stating my reaction to profs who said I couldn't remember what I remembered.

Hehe.

I think it has to be words OR some other developed skills... it doesn't have to be a formal language. Just something to make you store memory easier. My first memories are before I had language. An alternative language can be anything that gives some abstraction, like images. When I speak to myself in my head, I use "my own language", which isn't even words.

If it had to be language with words, people who cannot learn language would have zero memories and obviously they have memories.

If you somehow can create concepts in your mind, you can create lasting memories.

I really see no limit how far back memory can go, my niece is starting to lose her really early memories now but I think for some they stay. She used to remember with ease!!! back to about 6 months of age. And she spoke late so no language to help. Its just that some people seem to remember back only when they are still very young and for some reason they forget when they get older.

The ones with "amazingly" early memories I think never went through that delete phase or whatever to call it. I know I never did in the same extent as others. So I think it is not just about forming memories, it is about not having them deleted at around age 5.

Yea, I get tired when people say things aren't possible. I have many memories from before we moved and when we did I wasn't even 2.

I don't think there is anything wrong with people who start remembering early, or people starting to remembering late.