But that isn’t testing episodic-like memory yet. To truly be episodic-like recall, the initial storing of the event in memory needs to be incidental; there can’t be any knowledge that what is remembered will turn out to be important later. Therefore, the dog can’t be expecting to have his recall tested or be anticipating any sort of reward when making the initial observation. In a recent research study in the journal Current Biology, Dr. Fugazza and her colleagues modified the “Do as I Do” technique to take away the dogs’ expectation to imitate what they observed and consequently test their episodic-like memory.
The dogs’ accuracy at the task was not quite as high as when they were expecting to imitate their owner during the initial “Do as I Do” training; however, it’s amazing the dogs showed such a capacity for something some scientists think is a human-only ability. The researchers concluded that the dogs were using episodic-like memory to repeat their owner’s actions, even an hour after they first observed them. This suggests that dogs are doing way more than living in the moment. They are forming memories all the time and are able to recall them when needed. And considering how important humans are to dogs, it’s likely your every action is not only being watched, but remembered, as well.
Or can you? Dr. Claudia Fugazza has discovered a way to essentially ask dogs what they remember by using her training technique called “Do as I Do.” Dr. Fugazza, a researcher at MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Budapest, Hungary, developed this method while studying imitation in dogs. It involves teaching a dog to repeat an action he has just observed when given the cue “Do it!” After initial training, if the dog watches a person look inside a bucket and then is told, “Do it!” the dog will look inside the bucket, too. If the person then walks around the bucket and repeats the “Do it!” cue, the dog will walk around the bucket in response, having learned to imitate the actions of the handler.
In the next phase of the experiment, after the dogs were lying down reliably, the experimenters had the owners surprise the dogs by saying, “Do it!” after performing an action that had not yet been trained or tested. Even though the dogs had no reason to think they needed to remember what the owner had done, and they had no prior training with that action, they successfully repeated it. The dogs were tested both at one minute and one hour after observing the action, and even after the long wait, they were often still able to repeat what they had seen, although their accuracy faded a bit over time.
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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 havent seen me for days. If I stay in the backyard, they quickly become bored with me. If I go inside and return after 10 to 15 minutes, my dogs are overjoyed to see me and act like they havent seen me in days. They dont remember that I was in the backyard just a few minutes ago.
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 dont remember what happened yesterday and dont plan for tomorrow.
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 self-concept and mental time travel: recollecting the self in that other time period. Mental time travel also enables planning for the future. Dogs dont plan for particular future events although they have a general expectation of when dinner will appear.
Episodic remembering is mental time travel and depends on a few crucial cognitive capabilities. First, 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 didnt tell me I had something stuck between my teeth.) In contrast, put a red dot on a childs 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.
Arguing against Tulvings 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 Havent I Seen You Somewhere Before).
How Long Will Your Dog Remember Another Dog Scent?
For dogs to remember other dogs, they will first few minutes sniff each other. After they sniff each other and spend some time playing, they will remember each other after weeks. Allow your dog to socialize with other furry friends so they can build a friendly and amazing relationship with other dogs. Socialization will help them remember their tail-wagging friends forever.
Like humans, dogs can store an array of memories.
According to Dr. Bruce Kornreich, associate director at the Cornell Feline Health Center in Ithaca, New York, says that “[a dog’s] short-term memory is anywhere between 5 and 30 seconds and long-term memory can remain almost indefinitely.”
A dog’s memory span is directly related to its ability to retain different scents.
Your Dog Forgets You When You Leave
How much do you think your dog remembers about the day-to-day events in his life? Is his memory as good as yours, or is he only living in the moment? The ability to recall personal events and specific moments is known as “episodic memory,” and it’s up for debate whether dogs possess this type of memory at all. Episodic-like memory in animals is currently a hot topic for scientists because it’s tied to the idea of self-awareness, the ability to think about oneself, thought by some to be the great divide between humans and animals. It’s also a tricky subject to study because you can’t simply ask animals what they remember about their life.
Or can you? Dr. Claudia Fugazza has discovered a way to essentially ask dogs what they remember by using her training technique called “Do as I Do.” Dr. Fugazza, a researcher at MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Budapest, Hungary, developed this method while studying imitation in dogs. It involves teaching a dog to repeat an action he has just observed when given the cue “Do it!” After initial training, if the dog watches a person look inside a bucket and then is told, “Do it!” the dog will look inside the bucket, too. If the person then walks around the bucket and repeats the “Do it!” cue, the dog will walk around the bucket in response, having learned to imitate the actions of the handler.
But that isn’t testing episodic-like memory yet. To truly be episodic-like recall, the initial storing of the event in memory needs to be incidental; there can’t be any knowledge that what is remembered will turn out to be important later. Therefore, the dog can’t be expecting to have his recall tested or be anticipating any sort of reward when making the initial observation. In a recent research study in the journal Current Biology, Dr. Fugazza and her colleagues modified the “Do as I Do” technique to take away the dogs’ expectation to imitate what they observed and consequently test their episodic-like memory.
In the study, 17 dogs were taught the “Do as I Do” method of imitation, performing behaviors like placing their paws on a chair or touching an umbrella with their nose. Once they had mastered the “Do it!” cue, and had learned to repeat their owner’s action, they were given another round of training. This time, they were taught to lie down after watching the human action, no matter what that action was. This took away the dog’s expectation to imitate what they were seeing.
In the next phase of the experiment, after the dogs were lying down reliably, the experimenters had the owners surprise the dogs by saying, “Do it!” after performing an action that had not yet been trained or tested. Even though the dogs had no reason to think they needed to remember what the owner had done, and they had no prior training with that action, they successfully repeated it. The dogs were tested both at one minute and one hour after observing the action, and even after the long wait, they were often still able to repeat what they had seen, although their accuracy faded a bit over time.
The dogs’ accuracy at the task was not quite as high as when they were expecting to imitate their owner during the initial “Do as I Do” training; however, it’s amazing the dogs showed such a capacity for something some scientists think is a human-only ability. The researchers concluded that the dogs were using episodic-like memory to repeat their owner’s actions, even an hour after they first observed them. This suggests that dogs are doing way more than living in the moment. They are forming memories all the time and are able to recall them when needed. And considering how important humans are to dogs, it’s likely your every action is not only being watched, but remembered, as well.
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