Childhood memory distribution delineates three stages of episodic memory development: The passage of time explains an adult-like amount of recalled experiences... by age 4 or 5, most children show signs of having experienced everything that they recall. This pattern of results indicates that childhood amnesia ends by age 5 for most people. In general, adults remember the first few years of their lives quite poorly, while children can often recall events from as early as 1 year old. However, studies have shown that childhood amnesia is temporary, with more recent memories being better remembered than older ones. For example, in one study, participants were asked to describe a list of words that included both common and not so common items. They were then asked to repeat the words back to the researchers. Results showed that people could correctly identify words that had been presented within the last month but not those that dated back several years. This suggests that childhood amnesia is a temporary condition that ends around age 10 for most people. After this point, individuals begin to remember earlier events as well as later ones. The exact cause of childhood amnesia is unknown, but it may be due to a number of factors including the size of the hippocampus, temporal lobe structure responsible for storing memories.