eli5: Why do most people have no memories from before age 4 or 5 years old?
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There is a theory that our memory is based heavily on language. I don’t know that it has been proven, but it is compelling. Language seems to play such a major role in our information processing and mental models that even our memory recollection becomes tied to it. The effect is that memories made before you have the language to associate with it are unable to be recalled.
Carl Sagan’s book ~~Broca’s Brain~~ (edit: In retrospect, I think I might have been thinking of The Demon Haunted World or Dragons of Eden) dives into this topic with some very interesting studies. There are a lot of anecdotes and interesting facts in the book about how language and memory are interconnected.
In one section, he talks at length about how various cultures/languages around the world do not have words to distinguish between some colors. In one instance, the colors green and blue were the same word. People from that tribe would say that the sky and grass were the same color. This limitation is deeper than just “we use the same word for the color of grass and the sky” or “we don’t have the ability to see that they are not exactly the same” – these people were unable to differentiate between the two colors in retrospect. When given new words for green and blue, these people would be categorize things they saw as the correct color, while still being unable to recall if items from their past were either green or blue. This implies that details cannot be remembered if we did not have the language to remember it when the memory was formed.
Another interesting topic is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. When you add a new word to your vocabulary, you will notice that the new word seems to come up very frequently. It is likely that you have probably heard the word before, but you just didn’t know what it meant. You were unable to remember having heard the new word before for the same reason as mentioned above.
In short, your perception of the world surrounding you is deeply tied to your ability to communicate about it. You can only recall memories when you had the language to associate with it when the memory was formed.
There is a theory that our memory is based heavily on language. I don’t know that it has been proven, but it is compelling. Language seems to play such a major role in our information processing and mental models that even our memory recollection becomes tied to it. The effect is that memories made before you have the language to associate with it are unable to be recalled.
Carl Sagan’s book ~~Broca’s Brain~~ (edit: In retrospect, I think I might have been thinking of The Demon Haunted World or Dragons of Eden) dives into this topic with some very interesting studies. There are a lot of anecdotes and interesting facts in the book about how language and memory are interconnected.
In one section, he talks at length about how various cultures/languages around the world do not have words to distinguish between some colors. In one instance, the colors green and blue were the same word. People from that tribe would say that the sky and grass were the same color. This limitation is deeper than just “we use the same word for the color of grass and the sky” or “we don’t have the ability to see that they are not exactly the same” – these people were unable to differentiate between the two colors in retrospect. When given new words for green and blue, these people would be categorize things they saw as the correct color, while still being unable to recall if items from their past were either green or blue. This implies that details cannot be remembered if we did not have the language to remember it when the memory was formed.
Another interesting topic is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. When you add a new word to your vocabulary, you will notice that the new word seems to come up very frequently. It is likely that you have probably heard the word before, but you just didn’t know what it meant. You were unable to remember having heard the new word before for the same reason as mentioned above.
In short, your perception of the world surrounding you is deeply tied to your ability to communicate about it. You can only recall memories when you had the language to associate with it when the memory was formed.
There is a theory that our memory is based heavily on language. I don’t know that it has been proven, but it is compelling. Language seems to play such a major role in our information processing and mental models that even our memory recollection becomes tied to it. The effect is that memories made before you have the language to associate with it are unable to be recalled.
Carl Sagan’s book ~~Broca’s Brain~~ (edit: In retrospect, I think I might have been thinking of The Demon Haunted World or Dragons of Eden) dives into this topic with some very interesting studies. There are a lot of anecdotes and interesting facts in the book about how language and memory are interconnected.
In one section, he talks at length about how various cultures/languages around the world do not have words to distinguish between some colors. In one instance, the colors green and blue were the same word. People from that tribe would say that the sky and grass were the same color. This limitation is deeper than just “we use the same word for the color of grass and the sky” or “we don’t have the ability to see that they are not exactly the same” – these people were unable to differentiate between the two colors in retrospect. When given new words for green and blue, these people would be categorize things they saw as the correct color, while still being unable to recall if items from their past were either green or blue. This implies that details cannot be remembered if we did not have the language to remember it when the memory was formed.
Another interesting topic is the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. When you add a new word to your vocabulary, you will notice that the new word seems to come up very frequently. It is likely that you have probably heard the word before, but you just didn’t know what it meant. You were unable to remember having heard the new word before for the same reason as mentioned above.
In short, your perception of the world surrounding you is deeply tied to your ability to communicate about it. You can only recall memories when you had the language to associate with it when the memory was formed.
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