The date of the first recollection varies between very broad limits. There are persons who can recall a fact or scene which took place when they were one year old, or even less; others can not recollect anything from before they were six, seven, or even eight years old; but in general the first recollection corresponds with an age of from two to four years. One professed to have recollections from the age of six months, two from eight months, four from one year, nine from a year and a half, twenty-three from two years, twenty from two and a half years, nineteen from three years, fourteen from three and a half years, twelve from four years, six from five years, five from six years, two from seven years, and four from eight years.
In an inquiry made by C. Miles[1] on like subjects, we find two questions relative to the earliest recollections of infancy. The author concludes that the average date is about three years, but the figures are not given in detail. The questions are suggested first whether there may not be some essential difference in the nature of recollections that correspond with different ages, and then whether there is not some special cause that may explain why one person recollects a fact of his first year and another one only of his fifth year. We have not enough answers or any sufficiently detailed for the complete treatment of these questions. We proceed now to give our own conclusions.
The prime difference between recollections going back to the first year and those which relate to five or six years of age is that the former are all of events which greatly affected the child, and were frequently recalled to him in his infancy and youth; the latter are likewise facts that struck the imagination of the child, but generally less than the former; and there are cases in which the latter recollections were called up late in life; in two persons they were not evoked till our questions brought them up. One person, for instance, recalled the following scene: "A large room, with a fire on the hearth, and the ceiling and walls in the dark; an aged lady sitting before the fire, which shines brightly upon her. I am sitting in her lap. On the floor is a toy, a sheep with gilded horns. I have on red stockings, and have hold of the woman's nose. It is a large, flabby nose; the woman's face is wrinkled, her hair is white, and she wears spectacles" This was when the subject was eight or nine months old. One evening, when this person was six years old and his parents were sitting round the fire, he came up and of his own accord enacted the scene described above, and told the story, when they all laughed. Since then he has recalled the incident many times.
- ↑ C. Miles. A Study of Individual Psychology. American Journal of Psychology, vi, p. 565.
