A recent YouGov survey paints a striking picture of how Americans remember childhood. According to the poll, only 9% of adults say they remember “a lot” from when they were six years old. Even by the time people reach age 16, only 41% feel they remember that stage of life in detail, while 52% still describe their teenage memories as limited.
Those findings may sound surprising, but they fit with something psychologists have studied for decades. Most people experience what researchers call childhood amnesia, the natural inability to recall events from the earliest years of life.
The 2022 YouGov survey reached a similar conclusion. It found that only 16% of American adults believe they remember something from age two or younger.
Most people’s earliest memory comes later, with 20% placing it at age three, 17% at age four, and 15% at age five. Only 14% said their earliest memory began at age six or older.
Interestingly, more than half of Americans, 56%, say they have one particular memory they consider their very first. Older adults were even more likely than younger people to identify a specific first memory, despite having lived much longer since childhood.
That raises an obvious question. Why do some memories survive for decades while countless others disappear completely?
