CONCEPT:

Memory is a very individual phenomenon, but some generalities can be drawn. In this activity, students will investigate how far back their classmates can remember and look at the question of whether there is a characteristic emotion or situation related to one's earliest memory.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Ask your students to take a few minutes to reflect back to the earliest experience they can remember. Have them estimate, as best they can, at what age this experience occurred. Have each student share the age of their earliest memory and briefly describe the incident or scene as you jot down the age and descriptive phrase on the board. After all students have participated, categorize responses in two ways: age (How many can remember back to age two? How many to age three?, etc.), and type of experience remembered (fearful experience, happy experience, everyday routine, sibling rivalry, holiday, etc.). Students can decide which category best fits their experience or if a new category needs to be established.

DISCUSSION:

This is a very versatile activity and is a good way to initiate units on Developmental Psychology or Memory. If the class has already covered research methods and basic statistics, this lesson lends itself to illustrations of measures of central tendencies, correlations, etc. This activity offers the students an opportunity to draw research hypotheses on what type of experiences are significant enough to remember.

Jane Anne Phillips
Paul IV High School
Fairfax, Virginia