Early Memories

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How far back do your memories go? Is there any scientific or anecdotal evidence that autistics have longer / better memories?

I was reading the Intense World Syndrome thread, and it mentioned someting about hyper-memory. So I was curious if autism leads to a stronger memory. I'm not diagnosed officially but might be an aspie. I have memories of when I was 3 or 4 years old. I even remember my crib. Many NT people I know don't even remember their first few years of elementary school.

Although my school said I had a poor memory (when I got my fifth grade testing for an IEP), my mnemotic base is pretty vast. I can remember to a lot of the events of age two.

I have some very clear memories of 3 and 4 years old.

I don't think I have a particularly good memory for the details of past events, especially early ones. I did have a good memory in school, to remember information for tests.

Yes I remember my entire childhood in vivid detail, all the names of the people who lived on the street, their faces, the things we did together. It's so vivid it's like being there again. My friend who lived on the same street has no recollection of most of the memories I still have and that's really sad. The bad part of all this is I always miss my childhood and it's hard not to live in the past when things used to be so joyful.

My first memory is of me lying on my back in a crib and not able to move like a tortoise on it's back.

My short-term memory, especially remembering appointments and things to do, is largely non-existent. However, my long-term memory, especially events that happened to me in the past, is excellent. My earliest memory is of sitting on the floor in a corner of the living room playing while my mother vacuumed. My best guess of my age at that time is between fourteen and sixteen months. I know I couldn't talk at all at that time, while at the age of twenty months I was a little chatterbox, and was able to form complete sentences easily.

I vividly remember my preschool, both inside and the playground, which I attended from ages two to six. I remember my kindergarten class pretty well also. And I can remember exactly what I got for my second Christmas (I was about twenty months old) and my fifth birthday. I'm not sure why I can't remember much about any other Christmases or birthdays before my eighth of each. - LJS

When I was a child, my parents used big words with me, and always engaged me in intelligent conversations. remeber my mother telling me about the fall of Berlin wall as a two year old.

My earliest memory was as a one year old at daycare, in which the teacher tried to stuff oatmeal in my mouth and I spat it out.

The literature states that some people with Asperger's Syndrome have very clear memories of infancy. Something about the way our brains are wired. I do not personally have this - my first memories are around 3 years old.

Nothing before 5. My wife goes back further.

I have a few memories from age two, a bunch from age three, and then a lot of memories from age four and on.

Is it really true that many people don't remember the first few years of elementary school? If there are any sources for this, I would be very interested in reading them. I can't imagine--how can you not remember being five, six, seven years old? I wouldn't even say that I "have memories" from these ages. I just remember them, like I remember being ten or twenty, although admittedly not quite as clearly.

I don't know. I'm just speaking based on a few people I've asked. Totally unscientific.

Wikipedia says I'm wrong. But that aside, does anyone know if there has been a study into aspie memory vs. NT memory, and how they differ? That's really what I wanted to get at with this thread.

I have vivid memories as far back as 2 years old.

I can't even remember anything before 11 or 12

I remember when I was 3 years old, someone had two plastic toy balls. They put one in their mouth and one on their stomach so as to make it appear as though they swallowed it and it came out of their belly button. I tried to swallow it and do the same thing, but fortunately I was stopped.

Yeah, I have clear memories of when I was three years old, but fuzzier memories before that - one of a clear, four-paned window with different coloured glass, which my grandmother told me was exactly alike to the front door of her old house, that burned down just before I turned two.