Childhood amnesia

The relative scarcity of accessible autobiographical memories from the early years of life in later childhood and adulthood. It is not equivalent to inability to form memories during childhood. Encoding, retention, retrieval, verbal expression and dating can all affect the observed boundary. Prospectively following already documented early events can reveal loss of later access independently of adults’ retrospective dating.^[ref]

The particularly sparse later autobiographical access to events from infancy. Evidence for early conditioning or recognition challenges claims of global infant memory incapacity without necessarily removing this autobiographical phenomenon.