Infants can form memories starting at 1, but they don’t last until later
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You don't need persistent long term memory of past events to be conscious.So there's something to this
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At age 73 I have three very distinct memories from early childhood, one from around age 2, and the other two from 2 yrs and 5 mos (I can date those two very accurately). I can see each of them in my mind's eye as if it was the present. Two weren't traumatic at all, and one was more a case of apprehension than significant trauma (if anyone wants, I'll recount them).
As for "Infantile Amnesia", I think it is more likely that because young children don't have a "filing system" that allows them to access memories.
First, many don't have much language, so they can't internally describe what it is they are experiencing. It is hard to distinguish between an abundance of happy experiences, an abundance of hungry experiences, etc.
Second, very few young children have a useful concept or grasp of time. Yesterday is no more reachable in their memory as two weeks ago is or six months ago because time has little meaning. The world for a young child is perpetually "are we there yet". As a parent you now there's no difference between "a little while", "an hour", or "tomorrow". It's all the same to a young child.
My opinion is that only when children develop more than rudimentary language and a sense of time are they able to "file" or "organize" their memories such that they can access them.
A good test might be to ask people when did they learn to speak, and then read, and compare that with how far back their earliest memories are.
Those early memories? They're there, in random locations, and in many cases indistinguishable one from the other.
As for "Infantile Amnesia", I think it is more likely that because young children don't have a "filing system" that allows them to access memories.
First, many don't have much language, so they can't internally describe what it is they are experiencing. It is hard to distinguish between an abundance of happy experiences, an abundance of hungry experiences, etc.
Second, very few young children have a useful concept or grasp of time. Yesterday is no more reachable in their memory as two weeks ago is or six months ago because time has little meaning. The world for a young child is perpetually "are we there yet". As a parent you now there's no difference between "a little while", "an hour", or "tomorrow". It's all the same to a young child.
My opinion is that only when children develop more than rudimentary language and a sense of time are they able to "file" or "organize" their memories such that they can access them.
A good test might be to ask people when did they learn to speak, and then read, and compare that with how far back their earliest memories are.
Those early memories? They're there, in random locations, and in many cases indistinguishable one from the other.
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Not sure I believe this correct or maybe outlier. I have my first memory at 1 and half and a few at 2 years old. They were happy memories and still vivid today. At 2 when I had my birthday I can remember family trying to get me to eat cake with my hands and mouth and didnt want to since the day before was slapped on hands for not using a spoon for food. No matter how hard family tried to get me to eat cake with hands and mouth I wouldnt since punished for that. Maybe my brain wiring different since I'm autistic?
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I wonder what the evolutionary advantage of infantile amnesia is, if there is one.
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Interesting theory. I have a few "memories" from before I was four, but they all feel vague and dream-like. They more like memories of memories, which is exactly what I think they are. I believe that my infantile amnesia really affects memories before I was about 4.5 years old, because I have much more vivid memories of my brother as an older baby / early toddler than as an infant, and I had just turned four when he was born.
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My wife and I just had our first daughter and we wonder about this all the time. How much of what's happening now is Baby Girl actually remembering? Hopefully she'll forget our mistakes at least 
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I can't say I know anyone who has "heaps" of memories from before the age of four, but I definitely have a handful that date to being two or three years old.
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Yeah, I have a number of memories before I was 4 too, but they, like what everyone else is describing, are singular impactful moments that stuck with me. Nothing like the memories we typically recall later in life.
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TheWerewolf
Ars Scholae Palatinae
I'm sorry - I genuinely am... but "infantile amnesia" may well be the worse name for a condition or process ever invented.
It could mean "amnesia only infants get as a condition/illness" or "a very childish form of amnesia that causes the victim to behave like an infant" or any of several other surreal possibilities.
"Forgetting the memories of one's early childhood" though is almost the least obvious meaning.
I mean try "infancy amnesia" (still bad) or "infancy autorepression" (much better)
It could mean "amnesia only infants get as a condition/illness" or "a very childish form of amnesia that causes the victim to behave like an infant" or any of several other surreal possibilities.
"Forgetting the memories of one's early childhood" though is almost the least obvious meaning.
I mean try "infancy amnesia" (still bad) or "infancy autorepression" (much better)
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I was thinking of exactly that reference (Mary Poppins, Ch.9 John and Barbara's Story.)
I was wondering whether the idea, found in many cultures, that we forget any residual memories of past lives, arose partly to explain the experience of infantile amnesia.
In P.L.Travers case she was immersed in many of the ideas floating around in the early twentieth century including Theosophy and the ideas of G. I. Gurdjieff. I guess the 1920s were pretty nutty too.
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Evolutionary psychiatry is often about as valid as Freud, by which I mean "not very", so I suppose it's an apt comparison.
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From a layman's perspective, I'm happy not remembering breast feeding my mom, and I'd rather keep it that way. My therapy sessions are already weird enough.
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I know it's not what you meant, but the grammatical structure of how you said it did give me a rather ridiculous image in my head, thank you.
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HA! Yeah, it was pretty late. Guess it really messes with the whole "they take care of us until we take care of them" thing, lol
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