Babies Create Memories, then Forget

Scientists have found that babies do in fact create memories that last even for months. They just aren't able to remember and retain them long enough.

Infants were shown how to create a simple rattle and when given the same materials months later, they could repeat the exercise. "Children naturally imitate. You don't have to train them. They do this spontaneously," Most people can't recall events in their lives before age 3, causing scientists to assume that infants either don't form memories, or cannot retain them long enough. This theory called "infantile amnesia" doesn't explain the studies findings. Through records of brain voltage changes, scientists have shown that 20-month-olds store memories for as long as a year, and remember them for at least a month. However, 6-month-olds only demonstrated signs of remembering for a day. Research shows that visual memory abilities soar in babies between six and 10 months.

Researchers measured the most common form of memory, called declarative, used for names, places, events and descriptions. Differences in brain voltages indicated if the infants recognized a task as something they'd seen before. "Infants are forming memories but they're also forgetting. And the rate of forgetting among infants is greater than the rate among adults,"