Posted on 03/02/2015 10:55:47 AM PST by Red Badger
Dogs Don't Remember: Episodic Memory May Distinguish Humans
Dogs are wonderful creatures. Our dogs recognize me and are always happy to see me. Dogs are also smart and successful creatures. Our dogs have learned several cute tricks. But dogs (and other non-human animals) are missing something we take for granted: episodic memory. Dogs don't remember what happened yesterday and don't plan for tomorrow.
In defining episodic memory, Endel Tulving argued that it is unique to humans. Experience influences all animals. Most mammals and birds can build complex sets of knowledge or semantic memory. You and I also remember the experience of learning these complex sets of information. Dogs don't.
Episodic remembering is mental time travel and depends on a few crucial cognitive capabilities. First, in order to experience episodic remembering, an individual must have a sense of self. Most non-human animals have a dramatically different experience of self than we do. For example, most animals (and young humans) fail to identify themselves in mirrors. If I look in a mirror and see that I have something stuck between my teeth, I try to correct the problem. (I also wonder why my friends didn't tell me I had something stuck between my teeth.) In contrast, put a red dot on a child's forehead, put the child in front of a mirror, and watch what happens. Young children are more likely to reach for the baby in the mirror than for their own foreheads. Dogs treat the dog in the mirror as another dog; not as themselves. Most animals fail at the red dot mirror task.
A self concept is not, however, enough to ensure episodic remembering. Mental time travel is the other critical cognitive capability. I understand that yesterday is different from today and that tomorrow will be different as well. We realize that when we remember, the mental experience is a disjointed slice of time. Thus episodic remembering is the combination of a self concept and mental time travel: recollecting the self in that other time period. Mental time travel also enables planning for the future. Dogs don't plan for particular future events although they have a general expectation of when dinner will appear.
Tulving also argued that since episodic memory in a recent evolutionary development, it is particularly likely to suffer damage and loss. Anterograde amnesia is the failure to encode and remember new episodic memories. Anterograde amnesiacs can learn from single experiences without recollecting the experience. They retain a clear sense of self, but they have difficulty with time as personally experienced. Because they lack episodic memory, they can't recall what occurred just before the present moment and constantly feel like they just woke up. If you meet an anterograde amnesiac, leave the room, and return after 10 minutes, you'll remember having met the individual, but the amnesiac won't remember having met you.
My dogs display this particular failure of episodic remembering. If I walk into the backyard, the dogs are overjoyed to see me and act like they haven't seen me for days. If I stay in the backyard, they quickly become bored with me. If I go inside and return after 10-15 minutes, my dogs are overjoyed to see me and act like they haven't seen me in days. They don't remember that I was in the backyard just a few minutes ago.
Arguing against Tulving's notion that episodic remembering is unique to humans is hard. Showing the impact of a single experience is not enough. Even without episodic memory, humans can show the impact of single events. Anterograde amnesiacs can learn fear, learn new skills, and gain new conceptual knowledge. Normal humans also gain knowledge without remembering when and where they learned the information (see my earlier post on Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before).
Although I appreciate Tulving's conception of episodic memory, I've always been troubled by the difficulty of documenting that other animals have episodic memory. Episodic remembering hinges on the conscious experience of the self in some other time and place. Episodic memory is thus hard to demonstrate without the verbal ability to describe conscious experience.
Nonetheless, in a recent edited volume (The Missing Link in Cognition: Origins of Self Reflective Consciousness, edited by Terrance and Metcalf), several individuals have taken up the challenge. In my next post, I'll present the counter-argument: Dogs don't remember, but maybe chimps do. Since some non-human primates can perform self recognition with mirrors, they may perform episodic remembering. Even if they can't describe their memories, chimps may engage in mental time travel. My dogs, however, are stuck in an eternal present.
Ira E. Hyman, Jr., Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Western Washington University.
Wow, that is pretty impressive. Smart doggie!
Possible, but he used his eyesight and hearing mostly. He would hear the sound of their nails scraping along the tree bark. He was always watching though.
He loved to sit in front of the sliding glass door when it was pitch black darkness outside and gaze into it. He’d swivel his head constantly.
Counters! Not counterinsurgency! !!!
Yes. He can make tools. Another basset had to wear one of the cone collars and Georgie had it off of him in just a few minutes. He went after the tabs on the cone, pulling them out of their slit and was working on the tabs attached to the collar when we walked in the room.
hahaha! Good one. I have to admit tho, that my coon hound is clearly a democrat! He just wants to sleep all day while I work, get free food from me and then run wild in the hood all night!
-PJ
You might be on to something with the connection to Islam. Couple that with the “greenies” carbon footprint nonsense and there is no doubt an effort to steal our joy!
Quietly, safely stifled by the MSM censors, there are epidemics of dog poisonings happening, right now.
Either Americans have suddenly gone anti-dog batsh*t or *somebody* is getting rid of “unclean” animals in their new neighborhoods.
Dogs alert you when the enemy is near.
That alone, is reason enough for certain heathen cults to want them dead.
I do not believe in coincidence.
Too cute!!!!!
My fat little Min-Pin does that and it is hilarious!
We have a coon hound that we adopted at about five weeks old and has NEVER been abused but to watch him you would never know it.
If I pick up my back scratcher he zooms out the doggie door. He pretty much stays outside during football games where there is a lot of cheering or jeering.
Once I clapped my hands loudly and he jumped out of the window. Living in Houston the windows are seldom open but I guess he must have remembered it was open and used it because it was the quickest escape route.
We had to glue one of our dog’s tags together because he would shake and upon hearing his tags rattle would expect to be taken on a walk.
Yea, as well as the family members in close proximity.........cats don't fart nor do they run in their sleep......
Just sayin......
Dogs will appear as smart as they want to. If they can get out of doing something they don't want to by playing dumb, they will.
They will do tricks until the treats are gone, then they get bored real fast.
They will give you that happy puppy look right up until you discover the mutilated slipper, and then find a place to hide--implying they know a difference between right and wrong.
They get ridiculously excited at the sight of some people, and very hostile toward others. Is it something they smell, or do they know something you don't?
Maybe they met that person somewhere before...
If you watch them, they will show excitement, pleasure, sadness, boredom, disappointment, and anticipation. They look out the window waiting for the kids to come home, and look forlorn if they are too busy to play. I'd say they let you know they remember just as much as they want you to know they remember, and not a jot more.
This guys dog must be stupid as a democrat, my dogs remember very well indeed.
My daughter just got a half grown puppy from a neighbor. They live in a very rural area.
The previous owner mistreated the dog because it killed his chickens.
When ever he comes over the dog hides underneath the porch......................
:’) Well, #1, you need to stop showing up at your ex-wives’ houses! ;’)
I shake when someone tries to make me take a walk. ; )
Honest, I don't because, All My Ex's Live In Texas.
I think you may be right on. There was a “rash” of dog nappings in my neighborhood last year. My assumption was that it was the yoots from Detroit driving around and looking for “training dummies” for their pit fights. However, you have given me something else to think about.
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