Adults' earliest memories as a function of age, gender, and education in a large stratified sample

Childhood amnesia (i.e., a marked paucity of memories from the first 3-4 years of life) has often been examined by asking people for their earliest memory. Such studies have generally been conducted with college students, and thus been unable to examine possible effects of education and current age. We here report the first study on adults' earliest memories based on a large, stratified sample covering the adult life span from age 20 to 70 (n = 1,043). Because of the nature and size of our sample we have been able to investigate a range of factors simultaneously that typically have been studied separately in other studies. Participants with higher education reported earlier first memories than respondents with lower education. Women reported earlier memories than men. There was no interaction between gender and educational level. The current age of the respondents did not affect age of earliest memory, but older respondents had more vivid and more coherent earliest memories relative to younger respondents. Finally, the data provided some support for the claim that elaborative parents have children with earlier memories.