Posted on 04/07/2008 2:39:16 PM PDT by blam
Animals Are 'Stuck In Time' With Little Idea Of Past Or Future, Study Suggests
New research indicates that rats are able to keep track of how much time has passed since they discovered a piece of cheese, be it a little or a lot of time, but they don't actually form memories of when the discovery occurred. That is, the rats can't place the memories in time. (Credit: iStockphoto/Maria Bibikova)
ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2008) — Dog owners, who have noticed that their four-legged friend seem equally delighted to see them after five minutes away as five hours, may wonder if animals can tell when time passes. Newly published research from The University of Western Ontario may bring us closer to answering that very question.
William Roberts and his colleagues in Western’s Psychology Department found that rats are able to keep track of how much time has passed since they discovered a piece of cheese, be it a little or a lot, but they don’t actually form memories of when the discovery occurred. That is, the rats can’t place the memories in time.
The research team, led by Roberts, designed an experiment in which rats visited the ‘arms’ of a maze at different times of day. Some arms contained moderately desirable food pellets, and one arm contained a highly desirable piece of cheese. Rats were later returned to the maze with the cheese removed on certain trials and with the cheese replaced with a pellet on others.
All told, three groups of rats were tested in the research using three varying cues: when, how long ago or when plus how long ago.
Only the cue of how long ago food was encountered was used successfully by the rats.
These results, the researchers say, suggest that episodic-like memory in rats is qualitatively different from human episodic memory, which involves retention of the point in past time when an event occurred.
"The rats remember whether they did something, such as hoarded food a few hours or five days ago,” explained Roberts. “The more time that has passed, the weaker the memory may be. Rats may learn to follow different courses of action using weak and strong memory traces as cues, thus responding differently depending on how long ago an event occurred. However, they do not remember that the event occurred at a specific point in past time.”
Previous studies have suggested that rats and scrub jays (a relative of the crow and the blue jay) appear to remember storing or discovering various foods, but it hasn’t been clear whether the animals were remembering exactly when these events happened or how much time had elapsed.
“This research,” said Roberts, “supports the theory I introduced that animals are stuck in time, with no sense of time extending into the past or future.”
The results of the research, entitled “Episodic-Like Memory in Rats: Is it Based on When or How Long Ago,” appear in the journal Science, April 4, 2008.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Western Ontario.
DOHHH!
Animals Are ‘Stuck In Time’ With Little Idea Of Past Or Future, Study Suggests
sounds like that could apply to today’s captive public schools audience too..
“Dog owners, who have noticed that their four-legged friend seem equally delighted to see them after five minutes away as five hours,”
How hungry they were also played a factor for mine.
I know I’ve seen this article before, I just can’t remember when.
Who moved my cheese bump.
I sent that to a friend, her reply...”So what’s the big deal. The elephant is like all of us, he thinks he’s thinner than he really is.”
After a week at the kennel while I went to Europe, my pups were pretty surly when I picked them up.
My cat sure as h*ll remembers what a car carrier is.
Billy Pilgrim got unstuck in time.
These results, the researchers say, suggest that episodic-like memory in rats is qualitatively different from human episodic memory, which involves retention of the point in past time when an event occurred.
Mine doesn't :)
Dog owners, who have noticed that their four-legged friend seem equally delighted to see them after five minutes away as five hours,
Then there are cats who have the attitude of, "Oh, were you gone?"
My two cats punish me whenever I leave for more than two days.
Well this just can’t be.
Monkeys, dogs, dolphins...are all supposed to be nearly as smart as people!!! Imagine that.
BE the monkey!!
Exactly. I know my dog is a lot more excited to see me after I’ve been a way a while than when I just return from work. Of course, their feeling of missing me grows strong as time goes on. Same thing with birds too.
I’m convinced my cats are psychic.
They love playing laser pointer tag, and I store the laser pointer at different places in the apartment, but the moment — I mean the NANOSECOND — I pick it up (silently as possible) they all come charging in from everywhere in the apartment.
Of course, just touching a can of catfood does the same thing.
Lots of other things. I come home at night, one cat is always waiting at the front door, even though I try to come up as silently as possible...
have some cheese..
My pack of hound dogs know what a jingle of the car keys means....you better get out of the way or they will stampede you on the rush to the truck.
That point is not sufficiently clear. Can they remember the maze but not sequence?
These guys are completely nuts. Maybe rats and mice are like that, but I can guarantee that dogs not only are aware of time, but they have internal clocks that are accurate to within about five minutes. How do I know this?? I usually give my two Corgi’s a piece of cheese (treat) at 6:00AM. If I don’t show signs of “standing and delivering” (like I’m sitting down reading) within +/- five minutes of 6AM, my female Corgi WILL show up next to the chair, sit back on her haunchs (think prairie dog in “sentry” mode), and “bitch” at me because my ass isn’t in gear to deliver the cheese.
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