Cross-cultural and gender differences in childhood amnesia

In two experiments, we examined cross-cultural and gender differences in ad ults' earliest memories. To do this, we asked male and female adults from t hree cultural backgrounds (New Zealand European, New Zealand Maori, and Asi an) to describe and date their earliest personal memory. Consistent with pa st research, Asian adults reported significantly later memories than Europe an adults, however this effect was due exclusively to the extremely late me mories reported by Asian females. Maori adults, whose traditional culture i ncludes a strong emphasis on the past, reported significantly earlier memor ies than adults from the other two cultural groups. Across all three cultur es, the memories reported by women contained more information than the memo ries reported by men. These findings support the view that the age and cont ent of our earliest memories are influenced by a wide range of factors incl uding our culture and our gender. These factors must be incorporated into a ny comprehensive theory of autobiographical memory.