ABSTRACT
Infantile amnesia, the rapid forgetting of acquired information by very young organisms relative to adults, is commonly assumed to occur in both humans and animals. Its existence in infrahuman species is of particular interest because it suggests that anthropomorphic mechanisms like sexual repression, linguistic development, or hemispheric dominance do not completely account for human infantile amnesia. Using rats and frogs, we are presently exploring a mechanism that could contribute to infantile amnesia in all species: retroactive interference with retention by environmental events.
