Earliest Memories? The phenonenon of childhood amnesia

Here's a research question that has long intrigued me, a person's oldest memory. My oldest memory is from about three years of age. We lived in Bogota, Colombia at the time. I remember looking out the window at the stairway landing at a distant Andean peak that, apparently, was only visible every now and then because of the weather.

As a parent, I have informally tested my children from time to time about their memories. Once, I asked my oldest if he remembered visiting the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum a year after his last visit. He was about five years old at the time and he did not remember. I probed, and asked if he remembered what animal was just inside the main doors in the museum's rotunda. He still did not remember.

Here is what he did not remember, the giant elephant:

When discussing memory in class, I often ask students to recall their oldest memories. Sometimes the answers are quite extreme. Some students claim to recall salient events before they turned two years of age, while others are at a loss to recall anything before age five.

With the above as introduction, I found Wang's recent article quite apropos. Its title is: Where Does Our Past Begin? A Sociocultural Perspective on the Phenomenon of Childhood Amnesia. Here is a link to it.

Wang summarizes the data on childhood amnesia. Looks at theoretical attempts to explain it and proposes that childhood amnesia may vary socioculturally.

The Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students

The Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students (ASPS) will hold its 24th annual meeting on April 18-19, 2008 at Arkansas State University and our own Chris Spatz will be the keynote speaker.

ASPS was founded in 1984 by Randy Smith and Ralph McKenna. The germ of their inspiration came while walking down Bourbon St. during the 1983 meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association. The first meeting was held at Hendrix College in 1984 followed by a second meeting at Ouachita Baptist University the following year. See below for a list of the locations where ASPS has been held over the years.

That second meeting was where Chris and I first met. In fact, we roomed together. So, we have been working together for a long time now.

Here are the previous sites and keynote speakers of the Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students:

1985	Hendrix College	March 29-30
1986	Ouachita Baptist University	April 11-12	Steve Davis
1987	Southern Arkansas University	April 3-4	Arthur J. Riopelle
1988	Arkansas Tech University	April 8-9	Richard Dana
1989	Arkansas State University	April 7-8	E. John Capaldi, Michael Prince
1990	Henderson State University	April 6-7	Nate Azrin
1991	University of Arkansas-Fayetteville	April 5-6	Elizabeth Loftus
1992	Hendrix College	April 3-4	Charles Brewer
1993	Ouachita Baptist University	April 2-3	Mark Ware
1994	Southern Arkansas University	April 8-9	Bill Hill
1995	University of Arkansas-Monticello	April 7-8	Richard Miller
1996	Arkansas Tech University	April 12-13	Craig Carson
1997	University of Central Arkansas	April 11-12	Mark Ware
1998	University of Arkansas-Fayetteville	April 3-4	Phillip Costanzo
1999	Harding University	April 16-17	Dave Myers
2000	Arkansas State University	April 7-8	Sarah Boysen
2001	Hendrix College	April 6-7	Charles Brewer
2002	Ouachita Baptist University	April 12-13	Ludy Benjamin
2003	Southern Arkansas University	April 4-5	Elizabeth Yost Hammer
2004	University of Arkansas-Fayetteville	April 4-5	Brett Pelham
2005	Arkansas Tech University	April 8-9	Sharon Roberts
2006	University of Central Arkansas	April 7-8	John Harsh
2007	University of Arkansas-Monticello	April 13-14	no invited speaker
2008	Arkansas State University	April 19-19	Chris Spatz

McKenna and Smith envisioned a low-stress, collegial conference where students and faculty could come together and celebrate research in psychology. At ASPS, all papers are accepted and there are no competitions, all in the service of friendly gathering and a good time.

By JoVE, I think they've got it.

JoVE is the acronym for the new Journal of Visualized Experiments. This biological Web site displays research protocols using video, a kind of scientific YouTube.

Here is a blog entry about Moshe Pritsker, the CEO of JoVE. He discusses new deals to distribute the videos and how the cost to produce them has increased. At present, JoVE has about 200 videos. Pritsker wants to become a purveyor of biological methods videos.

JoVE is yet another example of how technology, research, and teaching interact. Video is a powerful medium. Combining video with the Web (a la YouTube) makes it possible to distribute video widely.

In chapter 12 (p. 386), we discuss another use of media as a communication medium, that is e-posters. We anticipate that many more useful applications of technology will appear over the next few years. Successful teachers and successful students will adapt to and use these new methods.

Now we need a Web site for visualizing psychological methods and protocols.

Ethics Course Topics

C. Neal Stewart and J. Lannett Edwards recently taught a graduate level ethics course, Research Ethics for the Life Sciences. See The Scientist for a longer account account and for more detail on their course. See this link for a copy of their syllabus.

I thought their list of topics was instructive:

• plagiarism
• authorship
• grantsmanship*
• peer review
• research misconduct
• image fraud
• whistle-blowing*
• conflicts of interest
• patenting*
• women in science* (as a special topic)

* designates topics we do not cover in our book

Their recommendations for teaching such a course also bear attention:

• Team teach
• Use case studies
• Use practical examples
• Keep it light
• Keep class size small
• Focus on ethics not morality

On page 72, we distinguish between ethics and morality in an In the Know box. We use the American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language as a source and say, "Morality relates to personal and sexual behavior according to societal strictures. Ethics, on the other hand, is derived from philosophy and attempts to provide objective and idealistic standards for human conduct."

Nobel Advice from Baltimore

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on David Baltimore's advice to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

He said that scientists should:

• Demand excellence
• Concentrate resources
• Create small environments
• Maintain the unity of teaching and research
• Make academic freedom crucial

Not following these rules, he said, will eventually pervert science and undermine economic growth.

In our book, we promote the unity of teaching and research and believe in creating small but realistic environments for our students to learn in. Naturally, we demand excellence too and believe in the importance of academic freedom. Concentrating resources has never been a problem for us, we have so little to start with.

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Engineering: Past and Present

In chapter 1 we discuss engineering and its relationship to science. Below is a list of the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements from the National Academy of Engineering.

Great Engineering Achievements

1. Electrification
2. Automobile
3. Airplane
4. Water Supply and Distribution
5. Electronics
6. Radio and Television
7. Agricultural Mechanization
8. Computers
9. Telephone
10. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
11. Highways
12. Spacecraft
13. Internet
14. Imaging
15. Household Appliances
16. Health Technologies
    
17. Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
18. Laser and Fiber Optics
19. Nuclear Technologies
20. High-performance Materials
    

Tomorrow's Challenges

1. Make solar energy economical
2. Provide energy from fusion
3. Develop carbon sequestration methods
4. Manage the nitrogen cycle
5. Provide access to clean water
6. Restore and improve urban infrastructure
7. Advance health informatics
8. Engineer better medicines
9. Reverse-engineer the brain
10. Prevent nuclear terror
11. Secure cyberspace
12. Enhance virtual reality
13. Advance personalized learning
14. Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

If after reading chapter 1 you are still wondering what we mean about the relationship of science and engineering, then look at the list and links above. Engineers have taken from science and provided many engineering solutions to human problems. However, there is much still to do.