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Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the age of 2–4 years, as well as the period before age 10 of which adults retain fewer memories than might otherwise be expected given the passage of time. For the first 1–2 years of life, brain structures such as the limbic system, which holds the hippocampus and the amygdala and is involved in memory storage, are not yet fully developed. Research has demonstrated that children can remember events from before the age of 3–4 years, but that these memories decline as children get older. Research has shown that children have the capacity to remember events that happened to them from age 1 and before while they are still relatively young, but as they get older they tend to be unable to recall memories from their youngest years. Psychologists differ in defining the offset of childhood amnesia. Some define it as the age from which a first memory can be retrieved; research using this definition of offset typically occurs around 3.5 years〔 but can range from 2 to 5 years, depending on the memory retrieval method.〔 Others define offset of childhood amnesia as the age at which memories change from general memories to more specific autobiographical events; this occurs at approximately 4.5 years of age.〔 This may be due to children's developing accurate knowledge of their own memory.〔 It is generally agreed there is no set age that people should be able to remember events from. When the offset of childhood amnesia is defined as the age of first memory, then offset occurs around 3.5 years though it can range from 2 to 5 years, depending on the memory retrieval method and age of the respondent.〔 However, when the offset of childhood amnesia is defined as the age at which the majority of memories are personal recollections rather than known events, then offset occurs at approximately 4.5 years old.〔 This may be due to children's development of understanding and knowledge of their own memory. Changes in encoding, storage and retrieval of memories during early childhood are all important when considering childhood amnesia. Research shows differences between gender and culture, which is implicated in the development of language. Childhood amnesia is particularly important to consider in regard to false memories and the development of the brain in early years. Proposed explanations of childhood amnesia are Freud's trauma theory (which is not supported by evidence and is generally discredited), neurological development, development of the cognitive self, emotion and language. ==History== Childhood amnesia was first formally reported by psychologist Caroline Miles in her article "A study of individual psychology", published in 1893 by the ''American Journal of Psychology''. Five years later, Henri and Henri published a survey showing that most respondents’ earliest recollections occurred between the ages of two and four. In 1904 G. Stanley Hall noted the phenomenon in his book, ''Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education''. In 1910, Sigmund Freud offered one of the most famous and controversial descriptions and explanations of childhood amnesia. Using psychoanalytic theory, he postulated that early life events were repressed due to their inappropriately sexual nature. He asserted that childhood or infantile amnesia was a precursor to the ‘hysterical amnesia,’ or repression, presented by his adult patients. Freud asked his patients to recall their earliest memories and found that they had difficulty remembering events from before the ages of 6–8. Freud coined the term "infantile" or "childhood amnesia" and discussed this phenomenon in his ''Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality''.〔 In 1972, Campbell and Spear published a seminal review about childhood amnesia in Psychological Sciences recapping the research conducted to understand this topic from neurological and behavioral perspectives in both human and animal models. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「childhood amnesia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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