Wang Qi
Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401, USA.
Memory. 2003 Jan;11(1):65-80. doi: 10.1080/741938173.
A number of theories have been offered over the past hundred years to explain the phenomenon of infantile amnesia, the common inability to remember autobiographical experiences from the first years of life. Recent comparative studies that examine autobiographical memories in different populations, particularly populations in North America and East Asia, have yielded intriguing findings that provide a unique opportunity to revisit some of the major theoretical views and to propose new accounts. In light of these findings, this article discusses five theoretical explanations for infantile amnesia, including cognitive and social discontinuity, the emergence of the self, early parent-child memory sharing, functions of autobiographical memory, and the complexity of life experience. The reconsideration of infantile amnesia from a cross-cultural perspective suggests that while the basic mechanisms and contributing factors may be universal, the specific ways in which these mechanisms and factors are manifested differ qualitatively across cultures. A theoretical approach that takes the larger cultural context into account can help us understand this long-standing puzzle.
在过去的一百年里，人们提出了许多理论来解释婴儿期遗忘现象，即普遍无法记住生命最初几年的自传式经历。最近的比较研究考察了不同人群，特别是北美和东亚人群的自传式记忆，得出了有趣的发现，为重新审视一些主要理论观点和提出新的解释提供了独特的机会。鉴于这些发现，本文讨论了对婴儿期遗忘的五种理论解释，包括认知和社会的不连续性、自我的出现、早期亲子记忆共享、自传式记忆的功能以及生活经历的复杂性。从跨文化视角重新审视婴儿期遗忘表明，虽然基本机制和促成因素可能具有普遍性，但这些机制和因素在不同文化中的具体表现方式在质上存在差异。一种考虑到更大文化背景的理论方法可以帮助我们理解这个长期存在的谜题。
