ABSTRACT
As adults we are capable of remembering very few of the specific events that occurred in our early childhood. This phenomenon, labeled “infantile amnesia,” is evident not only to those of us who attempt to recall our childhood past (Schachtel, 1947) but also to the numerous researchers who have documented a similar effect in the retentive capacity of infrahumans (Campbell & Spear, 1972). Moreover it is clear that this failure to recall events experienced during early development is not simply a function of the long retention interval separating infancy and adulthood. Although forgetting may be relatively minimal over a given period of time in adulthood, this same period of time often results in massive forgetting if it occurs contemporaneously with the period of transition between infancy and maturity.
