揭秘：你有4-7岁记忆空白吗

Children can recall memories from the age of 18-months - but forget them between the ages of four and seven, new research suggests。

It was previously thought that children under the age of four did not have the language or cognitive abilities to form lasting memories, explaining why most adults were unable to recall their earliest experiences。

But researchers at the Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada found children as young as four could recall baby memories, that when asked about later on in childhood they could not recall。

Carole Peterson, a psychology professor who undertook the research, said that her team found very young children had plenty of memories to talk about. "But by age 10, those memories seem to get crystallized," she said。

Peterson's team interviewed 140 children aged 4 to 13-years-old, asking them to describe their three earliest memories。

Surprisingly the youngest children could recall memories from as early as 18 months. All the while parents were present to confirm what the children were saying had actually taken place when they said it did。

The team then re-interviewed the children two years later, asking them to recall those same early memories。

They found that those aged between four and seven when first interviewed could not recall their "earliest" memories - even when prompted with specific clues. However, a third of children aged between 10 and 13-years-old at the start of the study recalled the same memories。

The results suggest that solid, "life long" memories form some time at or after the age of 10 - before these memories are more fragile and liable to fade. The study, published in the journal Child Development, suggests that our “psychological childhood” begins much later than previously thought。

最新研究显示，孩子们可以回忆起自己一岁半发生的事却总是忘记4到7岁时的事儿。

此前人们认为4岁以下的孩子因语言和认知能力有限，而无法拥有持久记忆，并以此来解释为何大部分成年人无法记起自己幼年时发生的事情。

但是加拿大纽芬兰纪念大学的研究人员发现，孩童在4岁时也可想起幼时记忆，但过了这段时间便会忘记。

着手于研究的心理学教授卡萝尔•皮特森称，她的团队发现很小的孩子也有可供分享的记忆。 “但是到10岁的时候，他们的早期记忆似乎被冻结了，”她说道。

皮特森的团队调查了140名4到13岁的儿童，让他们描述出3个最早的记忆。

出乎意料地，年龄最小的孩子可以想起自己1岁半时发生的事。同时爸爸妈妈也在场，以验证孩子所说是否属实。

小组在两年后重新调查了这些孩子，并让他们再次回忆最早发生的事。

研究人员发现，即使有详尽的提示，那些曾被调查、如今已是4到7岁的孩子已经记不起来“最早”发生的事了。但是，10到13岁的孩子中有1/3的人可以重拾之前的回忆。

研究结果显示，稳定、“长达一生”的记忆往往形成于10岁或更晚。而10岁之前的记忆更脆弱且易于消退。而这个刊登于《儿童发展》杂志的研究表明，我们的“心理儿童期”开始得远比我们之前认为的晚。