Cognitive Experiment 01: First Memory

Introduction

This experiment is conducted to see the ratio and average on the first memory a person may have. We are to think of what is the first memory we can remember and when is it happen. By having everyone says about their memories, the data is collected and analyzed into finding the average estimated age the first memories occur and the ratio between positive and negative memories.

Aim

To gather up information on the first memory each person has and see for average age in which the first memory is in and the ratio between good and bad memory.

First memory

I was playing in the small water tub in the garage when I was around 3-4 years old.

Data Collected

Average age as a class in which the first memories occurs = 3-4 years old

Ratio between positive and negative memories = 7:5

Conclusion and Evaluation

Memories are affected by emotional elements a person has in that certain moment. According to the theory on memory, a person is incapable of remembering the event before the age of five, which leads to the conclusion is that this experiment is not valid. One factor that affected this experiment is the malleability of the memories. People tend to remember things from photograph or story told by parents rather than remembering thing that really happens. That means some of the memories might not even exist, but a make up story by the parents. For me, since I heard of something called as childhood amnesia before, don’t know where I heard about it, which stated that people are capable of remembering only from 5 years old on, I also felt that the age is not correct, somehow. Either I recalled the wrong age or I saw it from the photograph that I remembered it, but I always have it cleared that something is wrong with this first memory.