揭祕：你有4 7歲記憶空白嗎

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。最新研究顯示，孩子們可以回憶起自己一歲半發生的事卻總是忘記4到7歲時的事兒。

此前人們認爲4歲以下的孩子因語言和認知能力有限，而無法擁有持久記憶，並以此來解釋爲何大部分成年人無法記起自己幼年時發生的事情。

但是加拿大紐芬蘭紀念大學的研究人員發現，孩童在4歲時也可想起幼時記憶，但過了這段時間便會忘記。

着手於研究的心理學教授卡蘿爾•皮特森稱，她的團隊發現很小的孩子也有可供分享的記憶。 “但是到10歲的時候，他們的早期記憶似乎被凍結了，”她說道。

皮特森的團隊調查了140名4到13歲的兒童，讓他們描述出3個最早的記憶。

出乎意料地，年齡最小的孩子可以想起自己1歲半時發生的事。同時爸爸媽媽也在場，以驗證孩子所說是否屬實。

小組在兩年後重新調查了這些孩子，並讓他們再次回憶最早發生的事。

研究人員發現，即使有詳盡的提示，那些曾被調查、如今已是4到7歲的孩子已經記不起來“最早”發生的事了。但是，10到13歲的孩子中有1/3的人可以重拾之前的回憶。

研究結果顯示，穩定、“長達一生”的記憶往往形成於10歲或更晚。而10歲之前的記憶更脆弱且易於消退。而這個刊登於《兒童發展》雜誌的研究表明，我們的“心理兒童期”開始得遠比我們之前認爲的晚。