... it's not the whole story. I suspect that if you were exposed to Portuguese and Russian again it would make it more likely that you would recall your childhood (the presence of contextual cues can influence recall - think for example how a long-forgotten smell or image can recall times long past), but appropriate context is not enough. The memories of your childhood may no longer exist or may be inaccessible.
The ability to recall one's early childhood seems to vary hugely between individuals. Having read many of the posts on this topic I wouldn't write any of them off out of hand - I think we are all different. I don't remember much before I was about 2 or 3 years old, although I was successfully able to recall and judge the compass orientation of my room while a toddler.
From a biological perspective, someone mentioned myelination (insulation - which helps nerve impulses travel more quickly along the neuron - cats, for example, have about the most heavily-myelinated neurones which accounts for their quick reflexes, about ten times faster than those of humans). If this happens at around 6 months then this would enable the beginnings of conscious thought, without which memory cannot be encoded or stored. So I'd guess that is the lower limit (but see below).
Developmental psychology holds that before the age of around 1 year, infants have no 'sense of self' - everything that is happening to them IS them. After this they begin to be able to separate what happens to them from what is happening in the world - although it is a few years before they are really able to see things from other people's perspective. Think of the rows toddlers have over toys - they have not yet acquired a sense of 'other'-ness.
In terms of recalling things from around birth (or before), it IS easy to 'acquire' memories of early life events from people around you (parents, older siblings etc). I believe this has been shown in 'false memory syndrome' studies. However, I don't mean to suggest that those posters who described memories of early events are lying. My boyfriend's former stepfather took him through past-life regression, where he experienced nearly being strangled by his own umbilical cord. His mother confirmed afterwards that this was exactly what had happened. As scientists we find this hard to explain but important not to discount.
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... it's not the whole story. I suspect that if you were exposed to Portuguese and Russian again it would make it more likely that you would recall your childhood (the presence of contextual cues can influence recall - think for example how a long-forgotten smell or image can recall times long past), but appropriate context is not enough. The memories of your childhood may no longer exist or may be inaccessible.
The ability to recall one's early childhood seems to vary hugely between individuals. Having read many of the posts on this topic I wouldn't write any of them off out of hand - I think we are all different. I don't remember much before I was about 2 or 3 years old, although I was successfully able to recall and judge the compass orientation of my room while a toddler.
From a biological perspective, someone mentioned myelination (insulation - which helps nerve impulses travel more quickly along the neuron - cats, for example, have about the most heavily-myelinated neurones which accounts for their quick reflexes, about ten times faster than those of humans). If this happens at around 6 months then this would enable the beginnings of conscious thought, without which memory cannot be encoded or stored. So I'd guess that is the lower limit (but see below).
Developmental psychology holds that before the age of around 1 year, infants have no 'sense of self' - everything that is happening to them IS them. After this they begin to be able to separate what happens to them from what is happening in the world - although it is a few years before they are really able to see things from other people's perspective. Think of the rows toddlers have over toys - they have not yet acquired a sense of 'other'-ness.
In terms of recalling things from around birth (or before), it IS easy to 'acquire' memories of early life events from people around you (parents, older siblings etc). I believe this has been shown in 'false memory syndrome' studies. However, I don't mean to suggest that those posters who described memories of early events are lying. My boyfriend's former stepfather took him through past-life regression, where he experienced nearly being strangled by his own umbilical cord. His mother confirmed afterwards that this was exactly what had happened. As scientists we find this hard to explain but important not to discount.