Elsevier

Cognition

Volume 52, Issue 1, July 1994, Pages 55-79
Cognition

Earliest recollections of childhood: a demographic analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(94)90004-3Get rights and content

Abstract

A theory has recently been advanced which proposes that the development of autobiographical recollection is shaped by a child's participation in discussions of events with adults (e.g. Nelson, 1988; Snow, 1990). A logical prediction of the theory is that demographic factors related to the nature of linguistic environments might be associated with differences in the development of autobiographical recollection. Four questionnaire studies that test this prediction are presented. The results, on a total of 768 subjects, show that the age of earliest memory increases across birth order, is slightly earlier for females than for males, and is earlier for Caucasians than for Asians. These findings are discussed in light of previous research showing that parents interact and talk more with first-borns and with girls, and in light of differences between Western and Asian cultures in socialization goals and the significance of autobiography in the development of self-concept.

References (59)

  • D.B. Pillemer et al.

    Childhood events recalled by children and adults

    Advances in child development and behavior

    (1989)
  • C.R. Barclay

    Schematization of autobiographical memory

  • F.C. Bartlett

    Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology

    (1932)
  • L. Belmont et al.

    Birth order, family size, and intelligence

    Science

    (1973)
  • J. Bossard

    Family modes of expression

    American Sociological Review

    (1945)
  • R. Bradley et al.

    174 children: A study of the relationship between home environment and cognitive development during the first five years

  • H.M. Breland

    Birth order effects: A reply to Schooler

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1973)
  • J. Bruner

    Acts of meaning

    (1990)
  • V. Cicirelli

    Mother-child and sibling-sibling interactions in a problem-solving task

    Child Development

    (1976)
  • P. Davis

    Gender differences in autobiographical memory for childhood emotional experiences

  • G. Dudycha et al.

    Some factors and characteristics of childhood memories

    Child Development

    (1933)
  • G. Dudycha et al.

    Childhood memories: A review of the literature

    Psychological Review

    (1941)
  • J. Dunn et al.

    Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children

    Developmental Psychology

    (1987)
  • A.R. Eisenberg

    Learning to describe past experiences in conversation

    Discourse Processes

    (1985)
  • S. Engel

    Learning to reminisce: A developmental study of how young children talk about the past

    (1986)
  • J. Fitzgerald

    Autobiographical memory: A developmental perspective

  • R. Fivush

    The functions of event memory: Some comments on Nelson and Barsalou

  • R. Fivush

    Exploring sex differences in the emotional content of mother-child conversations about the past

    Sex Roles

    (1989)
  • R. Fivush et al.

    Autobiographical memory across the preschool years: Towards reconceptualizing childhood amnesia

  • R. Fivush et al.

    Knowing and remembering in young children

    (1990)
  • S. Freud

    Childhood memories and screen memories

  • S. Freud

    Screen memories

  • A. Gottfried

    Home environment and early cognitive development: Integration, meta-analyses and conclusions

  • A. Gottfried et al.

    Home environment and cognitive development in young children of middle-SES families

  • V. Henri

    On our earliest recollections of childhood

    Psychological Review

    (1985)
  • D. Hermann et al.

    An inventory of everyday memory experiences

  • I. Hilton

    Differences in the behavior of mothers towards first- and later-born children

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1967)
  • J.A. Hudson

    The emergence of autobiographic memory in mother-child conversation

  • B. Jacobs et al.

    Birth order and sex of siblings as determinants of mother-infant interaction

    Child Development

    (1976)
  • Cited by (212)

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This research was supported by a grant from the Barbara R. Ditmars Bequest, Harvard University. I would like to express my gratitude to Sheldon White and David Pillemer for their comments on previous drafts of the manuscript. I would also like to thank Haerim Kim, Jasook Koo and Jungsook Han for collecting and translating the data in Study 4.

    Present address: Department of Psychology, Bronfman Science Center, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA.

    View full text