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Most people's earliest memories are at around 3 or 4 years of age, which correlates with the age kids start asking "why" for everything. Kids start asking why when they become self-aware. (lemmy.blahaj.zone)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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My earliest clear memory is that of my 4th birthday, from the moment I woke up to a couple of hours later. I remember my mom telling me to get dressed up so we can go to the daycare and after to school, which I started to do and then thought "what's school? what's daycare?" (these I asked) "why are you my mom?" (this one I didn't for some reason). After being fully dressed, we got into the car and drove to the daycare, I was guided to a room that's next to the kitchen and told to wait. A couple of minutes later, I notice a light coming from the hallway connecting to the kitchen ("what's that? why is it coming closer?"), then the nanny, her husband and my mom come out with a cake. I then immediately asked why there was a cake, I was told it's my birthday, and then I asked what's a birthday.

So yeah I think kids ask a lot of questions the moment or around when they start to be self-aware.

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[–] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

I remember reading something just the other day that said we form memories in the womb... I'll be back imma find a source.

Edit: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/recall-in-utero/

https://neurosciencenews.com/fetus-memory-learning-2211/

My guess is that we form memories from around 30 weeks but I don't think we actually recall that information. Perhaps like how you learned how to walk but you don't actually remember how you learned. But you obviously remembered how to do it since, ya know, you can walk. Plus we don't really understand that other people have their own point of view until around 3 so that might have something to do with your initial point. Someone else on this post commented a great video by VSauce about that which I highly recommend.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago

    Oh, I didn't mean to intend that we don't have memories from before that, since we very clearly do since we know who our parents/family are, the language we speak, etc. I meant that we can't actively recollect those memories, given a few exceptions.

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