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?
Why Your Brain Doesn’t Hold Onto Every Childhood Memory
