Childhood amnesia and early memories in children and adults

目的：本研究的目的是了解儿童如何记忆他们生活中的事件。在接下来的5年里，我们的目标集中在儿童健忘症，定义为无法回忆一个人的早期生活。它通常通过要求人们描述他们的第一记忆来探索。我们建议研究儿童和成人的童年健忘症。年龄比较使我们能够探索不同年龄以及发展轨迹的差异。各种研究将探讨：（a）最早记忆的可塑性。我们能否通过实验性干预来帮助儿童回忆起更早的记忆？(b)我们怎样才能鼓励儿童和成年人都能接触到更早的第一记忆和更多的早年记忆呢？(c)哪些变量会影响这些记忆的准确性，以及如何提高准确性？日期的准确性目前是一个重要的法医问题。 (d)什么策略是用来检索一个人最早的记忆？目前对此知之甚少。可以影响策略，以提高约会的准确性？(e)虐待或其他法医事件的早期记忆有多可信？其他人认为这些记忆可信吗？这些都是警察和法院面临的重要法医问题。科学方法：所有研究都涉及对个人的采访。有些是一对一的面对面访谈，其他访谈将通过远程平台，如zoom进行，其他则通过在线问卷进行。参加者将包括不同年龄的儿童以及成人。许多受访者的父母会验证他们孩子（包括成年后代）的记忆。新奇/预期意义：拟议的一系列研究探讨了儿童健忘症的新方面，并可以为理解这一现象提供发展指导，因为其中包括儿童和成人。“个人记忆何时开始”的问题一直是儿童遗忘症文献中的一个常见问题，对这个问题的回答影响了早期记忆理论的构建。大多数研究人员和几乎所有相关的教科书都声称，最早记忆的平均年龄约为3.5岁，但我实验室最近的工作对这一点提出了相当大的质疑。相反，我们认为记忆比通常认为的更早，数量更多，并且访问它们是由各种因素塑造的。 拟议的研究具有重要的法医学意义。儿童和成年人在事件发生多年后站出来声称遭受虐待并不罕见。警方和法院面临的重要问题是，这些记忆是可信的还是虚构的。如果能够证明许多人确实能够准确地回忆起2岁时的事件，并且更好的访谈技术可以帮助人们访问这些非常早期的记忆，那么这就对经常大规模地忽略从这个早期开始的记忆事件提出了质疑。

Objectives: The goal of this research program is to understand how children remember the events of their lives. For the next 5 years our objectives focus on childhood amnesia, defined as the inability to recall one's early life. It is commonly explored by asking people to describe their first memory. We propose to study childhood amnesia in both children and adults. Age comparisons allow us to explore differences across age as well as developmental trajectories. Various studies will explore: (a) The malleability of earliest memory. Can we experimentally intervene to help children recall even earlier memories? (b) How can we encourage access to both earlier first memories and more numerous memories from one's very early years, in both children and adults? (c) What variables affect accuracy of dating those memories and how might one be able to improve accuracy? Dating accuracy is currently an important forensic issue. (d) What strategies are used to retrieve one's earliest memories? Little is currently known about this. Can strategies be influenced to improve dating accuracy? (e) How credible are early memories of abuse or other forensic events? And are such memories perceived as credible by others? These are important forensic issues faced by police and courts. Scientific Approach: All studies involve interviews of individuals. Some are one-on-one in-person interviews, other interviews will be conducted via remote platforms like zoom, and others through on-line questionnaires. Participants will include children of various ages as well as adults. Parents of many interviewees will verify their children's (including adult offspring) memories. Novelty/Expected Significance: The proposed set of studies explores novel aspects of childhood amnesia and can provide developmental guidance in understanding the phenomenon because of the inclusion of both children and adults. The question of "when do personal memories start" has been an often-asked question in the childhood amnesia literature, and answers to this question have influenced theory construction about early memory. Most researchers and virtually all relevant textbooks claim that the average age of earliest memory is about 3½ years, but recent work in my lab has cast considerable doubt on this. Rather, we think that memories are earlier and more numerous than commonly believed, and that accessing them is shaped by various factors. The proposed research has important forensic implications. It is not unusual for children and adults to come forward many years after an event with assertions of experiencing abuse. Important questions facing police and courts revolve around whether such memories are credible or fictional. If it can be shown that many people are indeed able to accurately recall events from age 2, and that better interviewing techniques can help people access these very early memories, this casts doubt on the often wholesale dismissal of remembered events that date from this early