At what age does a child start retaining memories?
I dislike these questions about when memories begin. The brain is specialized for learning and memory. There are many different types of memory. There is motor, reward, sensory (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactility, etc. ), emotional, traumatic, semantic, episodic, autobiographical, etc memory. Which is it? Which type of memory is stored and when is it stored for its ease in retrievability? Motor? When its not reflexive and deliberate, three to six months. Sensory? Likely from birth. Which type of sensory? Likely tactility at birth. Visual at three months. Reward? Immediately at birth. Semantic? Likely two or three years of age. Episodic? Likely around two years of age. Autobiographical? Around three to four years of age when infantile amnesia lifts. So when you ask about when memory begins, it might help to specify the type of memory that which is desired. Not all memory is the same.