Infantile Amnesia

Our brains are constantly at work processing and retrieving information. However, we become frustrated when we cannot readily retrieve information that we have stored in our brains. The inability to remember can occur for a number of reasons that range from simple forgetting to phenomena like Infantile Amnesia. Infantile Amnesia is described as an adult's inability to remember events before the age of two or three. This phenomena has proven difficult to test because your "memory is in a constant state of reconstruction", (Rupp, 1998, p. 171). That is your memories are influenced by past events, and current perceptions about yourself. Therefore, you may remember events only in a way that it is congruent with your current perceptions of yourself, and current relationships. Rupp illustrated this: "Grown children who clash with their parents may find memories of childhood plastered over with new impressions the past becomes gloomier and more dismal; recollections of past injustices loom large." (Rupp, 1998, p.172) Hindsight bias is also a factor in both adult and childhood memories. Hindsight bias occurs when our memory of how certain we were about the accuracy of an event is altered. If an event is recounted that is similar to the memory that we have we tend to become more confident remembering events in a much more positive light. If our memory is found to be false, we quickly remember ourselves as being cautiously doubtful about the event in the first place. Therefore, it is clear that our memories are quite susceptible to error. Sigmund Freud, father of the psychoanalytic school of thought had a different interpretation. Freud contended that it was necessary to repress early childhood memories. This necessity stemmed out of the need to repress anxiety-producing sexual and aggressive memories related to a child's parent or parents. Freud thought that repression of these memories was essential to developing a healthy sex life as an adult. Though Freud's theories are widely accepted increasingly, contemporary psychologists are veering away from this theory. Memory is defined as the process by which information is encoded, stored and retrieved. This process is central to learning and thinking. There are three types of memory storage systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Sensory memory is the initial storage of information that may last for only an instant. Short-term memory holds information for 15 to 25 seconds. Long-term memory occurs when we store information permanently.