Peterson Carole, Grant Valerie V, Boland Lesley D
Psychology Department, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada A1B 3X9.
Memory. 2005 Aug;13(6):622-37. doi: 10.1080/09658210444000278.
Investigations of childhood amnesia have almost exclusively focused on the earliest memories of adults. Here we investigate the earliest memories of children of 6--19 years old. Parents confirmed the memory events and dated the memories. There were surprisingly few developmental differences between the earliest memories of children. Although 6--9-year-olds recalled earlier events than did older children, there were no differences between older age groups. Memories from all age groups were similar in structure, social orientation, and the nature of the recalled event. However, memories of older children were more likely to involve negative affect. There were also few gender differences, although girls were more likely to recall traumatic or transitional events while boys were more likely to recall play events. Overall, results deepen the paradox of early memory: 6--9-year-olds have verbally accessible memories from very early childhood that then seem to disappear as they get older.
对童年失忆症的研究几乎完全集中在成年人最早的记忆上。在此，我们研究了6至19岁儿童最早的记忆。父母确认了记忆事件并确定了记忆的日期。儿童最早的记忆之间令人惊讶地几乎没有发育差异。虽然6至9岁的儿童比年龄较大的儿童回忆起更早的事件，但年龄较大的儿童组之间没有差异。所有年龄组的记忆在结构、社会取向和所回忆事件的性质方面都相似。然而，年龄较大儿童的记忆更有可能涉及负面情绪。性别差异也很少，尽管女孩更有可能回忆起创伤性或过渡性事件，而男孩更有可能回忆起玩耍事件。总体而言，研究结果加深了早期记忆的悖论：6至9岁的儿童能清晰回忆起幼儿期的记忆，但这些记忆在他们长大后似乎消失了。
