Infantile amnesia
Do you ever wonder why you cannot recall certain early life events you experienced with your parents or family members (e.g., early birthdays or places you've traveled as a child)? This particular occurrence of non-remembrance is a condition that goes by the name of infantile amnesia; one that disallows the retrieval of childhood memories before the ages of 2-4. Our conscious memory is the result of a “growth spurt” in neural networks around the time humans begin to show signs of remembering experiences (Myers).
This lack of memory can pose an enormous inconvenience to those caring for children. From languages, a child is exposed to general skills taught. Caregivers must expose the child consistently or the child will forget valuable lessons. For example, languages taught before the neural “growth spurt” can be long forgotten if they are not constantly being used after the branching of neural networks, though studies have shown that even though people often do not retain most of the language they were taught as small children, they are more likely to show signs of acknowledging “subtle sound contrasts” that people without a native tongue for the language could not learn (Myers).
Though less of an inconvenience, Carolyn Rovee-Collier performed experiments on her new son, as well as several other infants, concerning their abilities to connect kicking their feet with the moving of a crib mobile (while a string was attached to the child’s foot, allowing for the movement). These children all learned that by kicking more they were able to move the mobile. However, when exposed to a different mobile, they showed no sign of acknowledging the link between moving their legs and moving the mobile due to their remembrance of only the original mobile. After a month's time when the infants were returned to their familiar mobile, they still remembered the connection between kicking and the movement of the mobile due to their prolonged exposure to the motions before the experiment was undergone (Myers).
References
Myers, D. G. (2014). Psychology (10 ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
This lack of memory can pose an enormous inconvenience to those caring for children. From languages, a child is exposed to general skills taught. Caregivers must expose the child consistently or the child will forget valuable lessons. For example, languages taught before the neural “growth spurt” can be long forgotten if they are not constantly being used after the branching of neural networks, though studies have shown that even though people often do not retain most of the language they were taught as small children, they are more likely to show signs of acknowledging “subtle sound contrasts” that people without a native tongue for the language could not learn (Myers).
Though less of an inconvenience, Carolyn Rovee-Collier performed experiments on her new son, as well as several other infants, concerning their abilities to connect kicking their feet with the moving of a crib mobile (while a string was attached to the child’s foot, allowing for the movement). These children all learned that by kicking more they were able to move the mobile. However, when exposed to a different mobile, they showed no sign of acknowledging the link between moving their legs and moving the mobile due to their remembrance of only the original mobile. After a month's time when the infants were returned to their familiar mobile, they still remembered the connection between kicking and the movement of the mobile due to their prolonged exposure to the motions before the experiment was undergone (Myers).
References
Myers, D. G. (2014). Psychology (10 ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.