Strategies for dating earliest memories

Young adults recalled and dated their five earliest memories, and dates compared with independent parental dates. Participants also provided information about how they derived dates through a "thinking aloud" procedure. All participants were also asked if they had experienced various landmark events when young. One group, the Priming cohort, was asked about potential landmark events prior to memory retrieval while the other group, the No Priming cohort, was asked after memory retrieval. The most frequently used dating strategies were seasons, landmark events, school year, special occasions, known dates, and guessing. Of these, only landmarks and known dates improved dating accuracy in both groups. Furthermore, priming landmarks led to more memories with known dates and a tendency to increase landmark use. This study was the first to show how people attempt to date their earliest memories, and suggests that dating accuracy may be able to be improved.