EurekAlert: People have a remarkable ability to remember and recall events from the past, even when those events didn’t hold any particular importance at the time they occurred. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on November 23 have evidence that dogs have that kind of “episodic memory” too.
The study found that dogs can recall a person’s complex actions even when they don’t expect to have their memory tested.
“The results of our study can be considered as a further step to break down artificially erected barriers between non-human animals and humans,” says Claudia Fugazza of MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Budapest, Hungary. “Dogs are among the few species that people consider ‘clever,’ and yet we are still surprised whenever a study reveals that dogs and their owners may share some mental abilities despite our distant evolutionary relationship.”
Evidence that non-human animals use episodic-like memory has been hard to come by because you can’t just ask a dog what it remembers. In the new study, the researchers took advantage of a trick called “Do as I Do.” Dogs trained to “Do as I Do” can watch a person perform an action and then do the action themselves. For example, if their owner jumps in the air and then gives the “Do it!” command, the dog would jump in the air too. read more
Wait, “artificially erected barriers”? Did they use this phrase out of habit from talking about gender or borders or something? Because I am pretty sure that the species difference is a real thing. But the barriers that exist are almost never an issue, as anyone who has ever loved a pet can attest.
well, if these little 4-legged bags of fur can remember all the crap they’d seen me pull, it’s a good gad-damned thing they can’t talk …. Man! the stories my pups could tell … ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’ would NOT be amused … I’d be outside sleepin’ in the dog house & they’d be in the freakin’ bed!
those ‘effer’s would be ‘Woman’s Best Friend’ ….. instead of ‘Man’s’
Molon, I called mine “THE BOSS OF EVERYTHING”
no wonder my dogs all screwed up.
You have 15 seconds to correct a dog when it’s done something wrong. Now convince me they remember something negative days, weeks, months ago. Not happening.
And that’s why I don’t have any pets……
Definition of episodic
1: made up of separate especially loosely connected episodes
2: having the form of an episode
3: of or limited in duration or significance to a particular episode
4: occurring, appearing, or changing at usually irregular intervals
Cats have great memories, too. When my friend came to visit, she fed the neighbor’s cat a bowl of bread and milk. Over a year later, my friend came for another visit and, as soon as the neighbor’s cat saw her, he came running to her, wanting the treat of milk and bread.
@oolook: If it involves getting food, my cat will remember it.
My kids had that kind of memory. They’d always assemble at the dinner table several times a day whether or not I fed them. Pests.
So how comes it takes so long to housebreak a puppy?
Oscar, my little dachshund has a strong memory. All I have to do is say; Who did this? Aaaannnnnd, he’s gone! The original episode of this action was well over a year ago, when he really did do it.
@Bad_Brad – I believe they do remember. Ever tried taking a dog to the vet only to have then quiver and try to hide. What is that if not memory of things past?
Anonymous was me
@burner – because puppies are babies and their brains aren’t yet fully developed. It takes a while to potty train a child, too.