Animals Are 'Stuck In Time' With Little Idea Of Past Or Future, Study Suggests

Science Daily ^ | 4-7-2008 | University of Western Ontario.

[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.

[Ronin]

If souls exist, and I am sure they do, than animals have their version of souls.

I am not sure how it works, or if their souls are divine in the same sense that human souls are (cats probably think their souls are superior) but that doesn’t matter much.

Any creature that is capable of love, as cats, dogs, etc, are, has a soul.

I love my cats. I know my cats love me.

[Ronin]

I’m sure they have other uses.

Probably for instantaneous contact with Supreme Cat Headquarters as part of planning for the day when they enslave humans, force them to feed them, groom them, pay their medical bills and otherwise amuse them...

Uh Wait... they already did that...

[MarkL]

Heh. I’ve noticed that my cats are so funny about sticking their heads under some small table or bench, closing their eyes, leaving their bodies and their fat behinds sticking out in a walkway and act like they feel completely hidden and safe because THEY can’t see US.

Well, it works on the "Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Trall."

Mark

[John Valentine]

A mere book recommendation should not have unleashed THAT!

And I’m very sure that you ought not be directing your lecture at me. Maybe somebody else, but definitely not me.

I’ve never been called a materialist before, that’s for sure!

[NFOShekky]

LMAO!!! Thanks!

[dan1123]

That point is not sufficiently clear. Can they remember the maze but not sequence?

I think they remember both, just not when they ran it last.

[AFreeBird]

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.

My Mom had a Shetland Sheepdog. You know, one of those little yappy dogs with a brain the size of walnut (okay, maybe bigger), that could leave a room I was sitting in with her, and then come back two minutes later and start barking at me like I hadn't been there all the time.

Gad I hate little yappy dogs.

[bert]

When I was growing up, I had two collie/shephards. Lucky was lithe and the mother of Toby who looked more like a collie. Lucky was a good cattle dog when given the opportunity.

They definitely could tell time.

Every afternoon at around 5:00 they would go to the street. They knew it was time for the cars to come and the chase would be on. They lived for 5:00 and the chase.