The Psychological Science of Overalls and Dandelions
By Lily Koch
Memory has been a source of intrigue and a foundation for years of research. It has yet to be understood completely, though much is already known. For one, information is taken in, processed, and then stored for later retrieval. Although it seems like a simple enough mechanism, information remembered or retrieved can be prone to errors. Dr. Julia Shaw (2016) explains that while basic memory foundations are made within the first few years of life, it is not until early adulthood that memory is matured.
A great example of this phenomenon is a memory I hold dear: My first memory as a child, from when I was four or five. I was in a field of bright yellow and greens – dandelions perhaps. Running around barefoot, I remember feeling happy, the way it felt watching the end of Avengers: Endgame when all the characters assembled to defeat Thanos. I remember wearing jean overalls, the tall grass tickling my feet, legs, and hands. I danced and ran around the field before finding an opening, turning around to face my parents and smiling the biggest smile ever with the wind blowing through the stalks slightly.
This memory seems tangible. A young child surrounded by beautiful yellow flowers in a field. It would have been around 2002-2003, which is not during ‘prime’ overalls fashion, but relatively close enough. I know that we traveled a reasonable amount when I was young to Iowa and Missouri because my extended family lived there, so coming across a field wouldn’t be anything bizarre. Especially with my young age, road trips required breaks to run around and see and experience new things. Overall, I would say that this memory is justified, and I would consider it credible, though I was quite young.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. According to my mother, she has no recollection of something like this happening when I was four or five. However, she does remember a time when I was in a field while in Iowa.
This is photographic proof of that time. It was dated July 2000. I would have been about one and a half years old. As you can see in the picture, I am surrounded by a field of green and some flowers. Though it is not as picturesque as my memory, it is plausible that this event is the origin of the memory I have now. The jumpsuit does have a level of similarity to overalls and though they’re not flowers, I am holding plants which have hues of yellow in them.
Phenomena such as these do not have one clear explanation as to why are memories can be mistaken or alter over time. However, it could be due to a few things that psychologists have discovered. First, it could be due to my age. Scientifically, an individual is not considered to be able to have a solid, long-term memory until the ages two-through-five. This means that if my memory is based off the experience I had in the photo above, I would be too young to ‘really’ remember it. Psychologists could attribute this to “confabulation”. Louis Nahum defined confabulation as “…the emergence of memories of experiences which never took place” (Dr. Julia Shaw, 2016).
On the other hand, it could also be due to the misinformation effect, “incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event” (Crash Course, 2014). This means that I could very well have remembered the overall experience, but misremembered certain aspects of the event itself. The memory I have seems so conceivable that perhaps I really did remember it, just not entirely correctly.
As stated before, memory is a mystical thing and much of it has yet to be discovered and explored. What was your earliest memory? Do you think your memories could have been exposed to confabulation or the misinformation effect? Now is a great time to reflect on your memories. I urge you to write them down and then reach out to family. See if your memories match theirs.
References
Crash Course. (2014, May 12). Remembering and forgetting: Crash course psychology #14 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVWbrNls-Kw
Shaw, J. (2016). The memory illusion. Penguin Random House UK.
Vitelli, R. (2014, April 14). Exploring childhood amnesia. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/media-spotlight/201404/exploring-childhood-amnesia