ABSTRACT

We perceive the world with our five senses. However, the role that these five senses play in early childhood memories has received relatively little attention. Against this background, participants (N = 117) were asked to write down their earliest childhood memories for the five senses and to answer additional questions regarding these memories. There was no significant difference between the five senses regarding the percentage of participants reporting a memory or between the valence and the subjective reliability of the reported memories. However, memories reported for sight were marginally longer, from a younger age, and estimated to be more important compared to memories reported for the other senses. A qualitative content analysis revealed that the vast majority of the reported memories fell into a limited number of categories. Interestingly, several categories played a role in more than one sense. Nevertheless, the reported memories also mirrored the characteristic properties that one is able to perceive with each sense. Overall, the findings support the notion that sight is the dominant sense. At the same time, they remind us that each sense provides us with unique information about ourselves and the world around us.

摘要

我们用五种感官感知世界。然而，这五种感官在儿童早期记忆中的作用相对较少受到关注。在此背景下，参与者（N = 117) 被要求写下他们对五种感官的最早童年记忆，并回答有关这些记忆的其他问题。在报告记忆的参与者百分比或报告记忆的效价和主观可靠性之间，五种感官之间没有显着差异。然而，报告的视觉记忆略长，从年轻开始，估计与报告的其他感官记忆相比更重要。一项定性内容分析显示，绝大多数报告的记忆都属于有限数量的类别。有趣的是，几个类别在不止一种意义上发挥了作用。尽管如此，报告的记忆也反映了人们能够用每种感官感知的特征。总体，调查结果支持视觉是主要感觉的观点。同时，它们提醒我们，每一种感官都为我们提供了关于我们自己和我们周围世界的独特信息。