Forgotten baby syndrome refers to a phenomenon in which young children are mistakenly left in vehicles.
Over 25% of parents with children under 3 have lost awareness of the child being present in the car at any point during the drive.[1]: 77 Each year, around the world, dozens of children die of vehicle-related hyperthermia.[a][3] Because these numbers began to rise after the popularization of air bags[9]: 7 and rear-facing child safety seats,[1]: 76 researchers began to suspect that memory may be the culprit.[10]
According to David M. Diamond, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida who has been studying the phenomenon since 2004, the phenomenon is a consequence of tension between the brain's habit-memory and prospective-memory systems,[11] which is resolved when basal ganglia "habit memory" suppresses the "prospective memory" system of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex,[1]: 78, 83 [12][13] resulting in a false memory and what he calls "autopilot".[12][13][14] Other psychologists have suggested the phenomenon is functionally similar to forgetting keys in a car[15] or forgetting to post a letter.[16]
Diamond has identified common factors of the phenomenon as "stress, sleep deprivation, and change in routine".[13] Stephen Cowen, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, has said that stress can render a person "more attentive to the immediate sensory stimuli or threats in your environment but not as attentive to your more distant memory of leaving your children in the car".[17]
There have been several efforts to address the phenomenon through technology, including back-seat alert systems (which note when a backseat is opened prior to driving), car-seat alarms (which detect whether a child is buckled in),[8] and end-of-trip reminders.[18] The Association of Global Automakers and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers have committed to the standardization of rear-seat-occupant alert systems by 2025.[19] Italy and Israel have enacted laws requiring such safety systems.[20]