Why do people give an unusual reaction when they ask when is my earliest memory...?

Question

And I tell them it had to happen when I was two, possibly earlier, because my brother was not born yet, and he was born when I was two. I have three to four memories from the place my parents lived in before I turned three (which is the age people think kids start remembering stuff) and anything I tell my dad about those memories, he confirms. The biggest memory was on the day we went to visit Mom in the hospital when my brother was first born, and I was two years, five months old. A momentous time.

What is the unusual reaction by teachers then? Is there something wrong with a brain that works that way? Please explain if it is something wrong or something odd, or if they are just put off because it is not what they learned in college when learning about memory.

Does I.Q. and lack of many external events such as visitors or outings matter? We hardly went anywhere when I was a kid, or had any visitors. My I.Q. is considered genius.

Interesting how someone brought up photographs. We don't have any of that event or any others until I was about four years old, except a couple self portraits of each of us. We were poor. There are three photos of their apartment back then, but those were not shown to me until I dug them up myself (snoopy me) when I was about twelve.

I don't consider myself a genius. A ridiculously outdated and biased test did. I think I'm pretty dense.

Hehe. I don't remember clothes I wore or anything like that, just Dad and my cousin Angela getting me ready to go to the hospital, and then the stairs at some point. (From birthday of my brother.) But other things are silly like sitting in front of a t.v. with Dad in a chair smoking and me watching a show with kids on a carousel. They had their birthdays called out. Can't remember their faces or colors on the carousel or anything, just know what it was coz it's a round thing with horses and I now know what it's called. :-) I remember sticking my finger in Dad's hot coffee cup when he stood to walk away. See? These aren't big deals, but I remember them. Now, if I said I could remember those things in as much detail as I sometimes recall previous night's dreams, I could be called sadly mistaken.

Answer 1

I'm no professor or teacher but I do know there is nothing wrong with your brain.I dearly wish I had earlier memories.
You are not alone. There are a couple of people I know that can remember the odd thing at the age of 2. It isn't that common though so that's probably why they are giving you strange reactions.
Stop worrying about their reactions and treasure your memories. I certainly would if I had them.

Answer 2

You may actually remember, or not. Others were around and knew of the events of that day, perhaps it was talked about during your young years. More likely, you do remember; and the lack of competing events makes it easier to remember.
It is said that man of 1000 years ago had a far better memory than we do, because we don't need to remember so much. More things happen to us, and we have other way of keeping track of those, and also have so many memories that each one may not be as precious as the few memories people of the past had. They passed down long poems, and stories, word for word for generations; we can't play the game and get around 12 people at a campfire without the whole idea changing.
Don't worry, those old IQ tests weren't all so bad, either.

Answer 3

Most people don't have memories from that early in life. I do. I remember the apartment we lived in, and my early mishaps with potty training, lol. There are no pictures of that apartment, but my memory has been confirmed as well. I have heard that having early memories is an indication of above average intelligence. I have tested high as well, so that may be so. The teachers may have learned that noone has that kind of early memory, or they may be just mentally filing you under "gifted" and are trying to think of how they will keep you interested when the rest of the class is struggling with what you have already conquered.

Answer 4

I know what you mean by teacher's reactions. I have a memory when I was in diapers. Very vividly...and it seems to threaten some of my teachers. I think some people just remember things that some don't, I don't hold too much stock to cognitive studies since people are unique and you can not study every person or even a group of people and think that you have studied every possible scenario. I too have a genius IQ and I wonder if somehow that can be correlated?? Hmm..

Answer 5

Memory's tricky. There's a REAL good chance that what you "remember" is reconstructed from stuff you've heard later ("later" being any time after age three). Or, you grew that part of the brain out a year early; I don't put that out of the realm of possibility, but to state that scientifically....you're probably "tainted" by unknown contact with your parents.

Answer 6

there's nothing wrong with that. my earliest memory is aslo about the same as yours. and most of th ealiest memories ar the happy experiences. i remember when i was about two, my aunt and i were on a bus when a very very very fat woman came on board... and i said "big, big" and the woman looked at me and she looked annoyed... fortunately there was an airplane that had just taken off because the bus we were on was just passing near the runway. then i said "big airplane". i askd my aunt about it and she said that she was quite worried and nervous that time because she thought she'd be getting into a fight bcause of what i did. and she asked me how did i remenber. i don't know too.
i aslo remember my self trying to fix the broken basket but i can't because my hands were too small that time.
i still remember a lot of things when i was a toddler.

you're not the only one and i believe that that's just normal.

Answer 7

Wow, you would think a genius would have figured this out by now..

Anyways, its not a big deal to remember things from 2 years old. Make a fusion reactor, and then I'll think about considering you a genius.

Answer 8

right, phsycologically, a child starts to remember when they learn to talk. this happens at around the age of three when they gurble words together. now there are always exceptions to any and evey rule of human physics quite simply because we are not simply "organisms" that live and die in a predictable manner, we all have distinct differences that separate lives form one another. in the case of your teachers it would be proven as jelousy to tell you that you "cannot possibly" remember things from that age. the directness of their aproach makes it a bold statement in an offensive form as opposed to a subtle "i dont think u can think that far back can u...?" i myself can remember hating being turned on my side and trying to tell my parents to turn me back over but not being able to say anything. ive been ridiculed as telling false stories, but these words are true and so are yours. we are all different and your teachers are scared to admit to the fact that they are incorrect.

Answer 9

nicely, once you final published this up, you had virtually an identical subject as final time. you have used "you" two times lower back. Why, is there meant to be a comma or something there? Like I additionally reported earlier, grammar errors and a great number of the sentences do not make sense.

Answer 10

I think it's great. I can remember a lot of things when I was 3 but I don't think I remember anything before that.