Typically, our earliest memories begin to form at around the time we’re 2 or 3. From this time on, kids learn how to express their inner emotions and make a coherent sentence. However, there are some dark spots in our memory when it comes to the age of kindergarten or elementary school. Scientists believe that childhood amnesia is to blame.
As soon as you become an adult, it becomes virtually impossible to retrieve early episodic memories. It seems quite paradoxical because the human ability to retrieve childhood memories shouldn’t deteriorate with time if the brain is functioning well and one could be described as healthy.
Modern theorists explain that the key to forgetting lies in the early development of the brain itself, because infants are able to recall information for weeks or even months. The amnesia of early events occurs suddenly over a period of two years, and the younger you are, the more likely you’ll forget things from early days. However, the tendency to forget slows down with age.
With every single reminiscence, we make a repetition in our brain that allows us to keep the episode longer in our memory banks. Walking down memory lane every now and then turns out to be an excellent way to keep the precious moments locked in our brains!
