At Which Age Do Memories First Form?

The concept of memory is a fascinating topic that researchers are still trying to understand. In a previous article, An Overview of How the Human Memory Works, we dug deep and figured out that the brain is like a muscle that needs a good workout daily. The more use the synapses and pathways between neurons in the brain get, the stronger they get. But at which age can the human mind create memories? 

It is crucial to have a bit of background on how the brain develops over time. As mentioned above, the brain’s memory relies on the use of a network. At age two or three, the brain creates more synapses than it needs. Even more synapses than adults have! Over time, the brain “discards,” so to speak, the extra synapses. The Urban Childhood Institute explains:

“A child’s senses report to the brain about her environment and experiences, and this input stimulates neural activity. Speech sounds, for example, stimulate activity in language-related brain regions. The more a child hears, the more the synapses between neurons in that area will activate.”

The development of a baby’s brain year-to-year dramatically evolves, developing more synapses and becoming more interconnected. At age two, the brain’s language areas strengthen, and they begin to use “I” and “me.” They also can recognize themselves in the mirror. By age three, the development of a child’s neural network allows them to use the past to understand the present moment better. 

Knowing what we know about how the brain develops gives Senior Research Associate at the University of Bradford, Shazia Akhtar, a head start in his study to find out more about our memories. The Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, published Akhtar and his team’s findings. Akhtar found that most people remembered something at the age of three. The study asked 6,641 participants to describe what their first memory was in detail and at what age they were when that event took place. From the subject’s descriptions, researchers were able to determine whether or not that memory was real.

There was a group of people within the study that said their first memory was at age two. This interested Akhtar and his team. Didn’t that seem a little too young to remember something? After further analysis, they found that nearly 40% of participants who reported their first memory at the age of two or younger, that that memory was most likely to be fictional. That’s not to say that this group of people were lying. Akhtar explains, “We suggest that what a rememberer has in mind when recalling fictional improbably early memories is an episodic-memory-like mental representation consisting of remembered fragments of early experience and some facts or knowledge about their own infancy/childhood.” In other words, this group could put together memories based on family photos and stories.

It’s your turn. What’s your first memory? Let us know in the comments! Keep your mind sharp by learning how to speed read. Speed reading exercises your brain and improves comprehension skills. In turn, your memory becomes stronger helping you in all aspects of life. Find out more about all of our online courses today!