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.
Carpe Diem.
Obviously, you haven’t read The Moral Animal by Robert Wright.
You might find it thought provoking.
Thanks, that makes us feel very appreciated!
The Dog Whisperer has said this, and used this theory for years, to the dogs and pack leaders benefit.
Yeah, what about that.
It’s not the noise. I got curious and removed the key-chain attachment and even started putting it on soft things like towels or tissues trying to fool them.
It never works.
Somehow they always know.
;’)
Thanks for the ping.
I will file this scientific study, in the same file with the Gore reports on the weather.
Bunk.
Birds know when to lay, where their territory is and reuse the same nest.
Or as my Petz Conure did for years, when the alarm would ring, so he could be there to make sure you woke up, bloody if you tried to reach over and turn it off.
LOL, then one morning, I woke up before Dink and the alarm and discovered the the clock made a ‘click’ sound, before it started ringing.
Dink was always at the window, watching for Bill, when it was time for him to come home.
Dink also remembered that he liked the taste of beer, after my brother let him drink out of his can, and forever afterwards
[15 or so years], if I opened a can of soda, he was there, wanting beer and apt to bite, if it was not beer, which it was not if i opened it.
Dink had been raised by Jim and Jo Huitt from 2 days old and until he died at 25, he would sometimes sit quietly stare into space and talk, using Jim’s Texas voice and Jo’s soft Arizona voice, you could see him going back in time and remembering what they had said to him.
“You wanta bath” “Dink is a pretty boy” and LOL “NO-NO Dink”, then he would go into his conversation with them, back and forth.
Jo, said she tried for 3 years to get Dink to talk, that she always uncovered his cage, and said “Howdy Dink”.........
And Jim always said, “that dumb bird will never talk”
So one morning Jo, uncovered the cage and did not speak and Dink was very upset and said it for her “Howdy Dink” and he never shut up again.
Yup.
My cat can remember when the vet is coming over. (House call vet, comes over every 6 months) He must have a time sense, because he goes looking for the vet’s truck in the morning when he “thinks” the vet is coming.
He also remembers what Mondays are. They’re the day I often go to the Texas Land And Cattle steakhouse for the all you can eat smoked sirloin - and bring him home some of the leftovers.
You may think of yourself as an animal if you so choose. I do not. I see you as a child of God and as spirit temporarily surrounded by flesh.
You may choose to believe that all thought is the result of chemical-electrical processes and that all of existence is no more than a fortuitous combination of various particles bound by various energies. My world is much larger and more varied than that. My world is a place of freedom and infinite possibilities. The materialist is bound by the shackles of a totally determinist universe. Nothing is free because all is the result of an inescabable chain of causation and the human being has no more freedom or significance than a stone. What a drab and horrid existence. But I know some take great satisfaction in this belief. They are free to so choose. I pray for them every so often.
One thing is certain. We will all learn the truth of our condition - sooner or later.
Probably my favorite animated cartoon of all time. So funny.
If I go down and get a Dr. Pepper right now, my dog will probably raise her head briefly and then go back to sleep. When I come home, though, she barks and runs around excitedly.
Just like a baby......
Dogs may not. My cat can. He knows that if I bring home steak in a box on Monday, he’s getting a treat at dinner the following day. He knows he’ll get some, so while he perks up and shows his happiness, he doesn’t actually ask for any.
You didn’t *really* think those whiskers were only good for feeling their way around in the dark in close spaces, did you?
Animals Are ‘Stuck In Time’ With Little Idea Of Past Or Future ping
You animal!!!
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