Speaking of Psychology Why can’t you remember being a baby? With Nicholas Turk-Browne, PhD
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Jul 9, 2025 Nicholas Turk-Browne, PhD, a psychology professor at Yale University, explores the enigma of childhood amnesia. He discusses groundbreaking research indicating that babies form memories, yet adults struggle to recall them. The conversation delves into the science of how infant brains process experiences and the role of advanced brain imaging techniques in this understanding. Listeners learn about the implications of early memory formation on identity, behavior, and the lifelong impact of early experiences.
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Earliest Age People Remember
- Most people can only remember events from around age 4 to 5 onward regardless of their current age.
- Memories from before age 3 or 4 are unlikely to be genuine episodic memories.
Babies Form But Lose Memory Access
- Babies do form memories but cannot access them later due to retrieval failure, not inability to store.
- Animal studies show memories exist but require direct neural stimulation to be recalled.
Use Context to Recall Memories
- To recall forgotten memories, recreate the contextual mindset present during memory encoding.
- Use context clues like location, time, and sensory details to improve memory retrieval.