How long does a humans memory last?

Question

why cant people remember stuff from when they are babies for the most part

how long can a human remember one event without confusing details

Answer 1

Nature is intelligent, if you could remember everything all the time, also bad things would come, and that would not be good.
The brain is selective.
I guess your memory last all your life, but it gets dusty, there are exercises to strengthen then
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Answer 2

What makes this question difficult to answer is that humans have many types of memory - and these memories fall into two major classes, declaritive (things that you can freely recall and describe) and non-declaritive (things that are "hidden in the system", away from conscious thought - but can show themselves, for example, in the speed with which you perform a learned task).
It's hard to know how far back non-declaritive memory goes.
Declaritive memories, the things that form "the story of your life", probably only begin to form after you start to acquire language (at about age two years on). This is because language gives us the ability to form a narrative structure, or make a story out of things. It allows us to name and describe what we have experienced.
Research also suggests that we do not "record" our experience like a simple data storage device does, but instead "re-construct" a lot of our recollections, using a mixture of stored information and current information (hence the possibility of "false" or "implanted memories). So I suppose, a memory can last as long as it continues to be regularly re-constructed and reinforced (and as long as the brain itself continues to function normally) - but there may be quite a bit of "drift" between the original event and the recalled event. Just how different would the recollection have to be from the actual event before it stops being a memory, and starts being a fantasy?

Answer 3

Salvador Dali claimed to have memories while he was in his mothers womb... but I think the general belief is that our brains are still developing... and most of us don't start having strong memories until 3 or 4 years of age....

One of our strongest memories is smell... and I know that I have memories of smells before the age of 3... visiting places where I could remember the smell.a little later in life.

Answer 4

Most researchers - as I recall [sorry, no pun intended] - conclude that memories last a lifetime; it is retrieving them that can become difficult. I tend to agree. Consider how dementia patients may remember memories from many years ago, so vividly that they are "reliving" events. It seems frightening to us, "crazy" even, but it makes sense as their apparently in a 3D movie, so to speak.

Answer 5

it depends on the person...minds can be exercized to increase memory..i have memories from when i wasn't yet 2