## 1 Introduction
### The Present Study  
Since it is now clear that autobiographical memory develops over a period of several years, we wanted to shed light on the mechanisms underpinning the steps of this development.  
To study the development of autobiographical memory, we examined the distribution of young adults' early memory recall, maintaining the classic distinction between the first and the second epoch of IA.  
A primary aim of the present study was to analyze the first memories, starting from the distinction between fragment and event memories [59]. However, we think that these two categories (fragment and event memories) do not include all possible forms of memory. In other words, memories could be present, but it is not possible to classify them.  
For this reason, we have introduced new categories which, in our opinion, represent different ways of remembering: Perceptual-Visual Fragment (PVF), General Semantic Memory (GSM), Episodic Fragment (EpF), Repeated Episode (REp), and Single Episodic Event (SEpE) (see event report scoring section). We organized these classes of memories following [PERSON]'s model of memory according to systems organization. For this reason, we have kept separate the memories with a perceptual component in which a structured narration was very poor. Regards memory with a narrative, we have kept semantic memories alone because they represent a maturation level preceding episodic memory system. The latter system is characterized by a high degree of polymorphism which does not necessarily indicate greater or lesser complexity but diversity of contents elaboration. Because each individual has a personal perspective on the experienced world, episodic memory of an event is unique and virtually may change depending on the context in which it is remembered. As widely documented in the literature on memory, episodic system matures over time not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. Very schematically the principal cognitive components of episodic memory can be summarized as follows: personal event memory, episodic future thinking, imagination, time travelling, and prospective memory [47; 60].  
In line with previous literature, we expect the presence and the number of typical but incomplete elements of an event to be related to the development of episodic memory and to the subsequent organization of autobiographical memories. By virtue of this progressive maturation, we expect a presence of incomplete memories in both epochs of IA, with more frequent episodic events in the second epoch than in the first.  
The second aim concerns specific features that characterize these memories, in particular, activity, location, presence of self and/or other participants, and the possible presence of emotions. Our hypothesis is that both the first fragments and the more organized memories contain these elements but in different quantities. Specifically, we expect to find a lower and more fragmented presence of these elements in fragment memories compared to other types of remembering. We did not analyze the importance of the events in relation to uniqueness and memorability. The memory of an event experienced during early childhood does not allow its importance and/or uniqueness to be evaluated ex post. These factors can take on different meanings in the memory compared to the original experience. In our opinion, these aspects could be studied only in conditions of time proximity between the real event and its remembering.  
_A latere_, we also wanted to see if there were differences related to gender, often identified as a distinguishing factor in the age of early memory in women vs. men [61].  
This aspect of the research has an exploratory character, as we are aware of the importance of cultural and educational factors in determining gender differences.