In the general public, there is considerable interest in the “mystery of why you can’t remember being a baby” ( ). Since the time Freud ( Citation1905/ Citation1953) noted the phenomenon of childhood amnesia – the scarcity of memories for very early life events – the fascination with childhood memory has persisted both in popular culture and among memory researchers. This special issue of Memory is devoted to research that brings together new perspectives on childhood memory. This collective body of work will facilitate discussion and deepen our understanding of the dynamics that influence the accessibility, content, accuracy, and phenomenological qualities of memories from early childhood. The findings together show that childhood amnesia is a complex and malleable phenomenon and that the waning of childhood amnesia and the development of autobiographical memory are shaped by a variety of interactive social and cognitive factors. The methodological approaches are diverse and theoretical insights rich. The topics of the studies reported in the special issue range from memories of infants and young children for recent and distant life events, to mother–child conversations about memories for extended lifetime periods, and to retrospective recollections of early childhood in adolescents and adults. This special issue brings together the scholarship that contributes diverse new perspectives on childhood amnesia – the scarcity of memories for very early life events.
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