Do cats have a good memory? Has it ever happened to you that you call your cat by his name, and he doesn't react? Are you surprised that your cat is able to remember how to get home, when you are sure that he has feline friends at certain distances from home? Memory or instinct?
Many times we believe that animals, even those that have been domesticated, are not able to remember things that happen to them and learn from those situations, but when you have a pet at home experience seems to show otherwise. Do you want to know if your cat has a good memory? Keep reading this AnimalWised article!
How does feline memory work?
As with all other animals, and with humans, feline memory resides in a section of the brain. The cat's brain occupies less than 1% of its body mass, but when it comes to memory, and also intelligence, the determining factor is the number of neurons that are present in it.
In this way, a cat has three hundred million neurons Don't know what this is equivalent to? So that you can make a comparison, dogs have only one hundred and sixty million neurons, so biologically, the retention capacity of cats is superior to that of dogs.
Studies have shown that the short-term memory of cats is around 16 hours, which allows them to remember recent events. However, for these events to go into long-term memory, they must necessarily be of some vital importance to the cat, so that it is able to make the selection and save that event as something that could be useful for the future. The exact mechanism by which this is done is still unknown today.
The memory of these house cats as well as being selective is episodic, that is, they are capable of remembering the location of things, certain people, routines, positive or negative events, among many others, because they have already lived them, and according to the intensity of the sensations of those experiences, they store all that information in the cerebral cortex or not.
As occurs with human beings, various studies have proven that in many feline individuals cognitive ability, and therefore memories, deteriorate and are lost when old age is reached, which results in a condition called feline cognitive dysfunction, which affects cats 12 years and older. Of course, not everyone gets it.
Does the memory allow the cat to learn?
The observationand the own experiencesare what you they allow the cat to learn everything he needs to live comfortably. How do you take advantage of things observed and experienced? Well, through memory, which selects what will be useful to you and allows you to react in the most appropriate way for your interests the next time the same situation arises.
Cats' memory works in this way in both domestic and wild ones, since from an early age they watch their mother to learn everything they need. This learning process through memory is linked to the sensations that the cat experienced during the experience, whether good or bad. In this way, it is able to react to stimuli that it associates with me altime, such as running away from people or pets that have tried to harm it.
This system allows the cat to keep himself safe from possible dangers, while identifying his owner and remembering everything positive that he is able to associate with him, such as delicious food, affection and hours of play.
What the cat learns has to do directly with the benefits that he can derive from this learning, if he considers that it will not help him, it is very likely that it will be eliminated with short-term memory. For this reason it is so difficult, in most homes, to prevent them from doing things like scratching specific places, although a cat can be taught to use the scratching post, it is not always possible to educate him.
How far can the cat's memory go?
There is still no study that has determined the maximum age of memories that a cat can store, that is, how far back in the past his memory can go. Some research points to as little as three years, but anyone who owns a cat will be able to relate cat behaviors to situations they experienced much longer ago.
However, there is still no absolute opinion on this. What is certain is that they are not only capable of remembering situations that may be favorable or unfavorable to them, to know whether to repeat them or not and how to react to them, but they also store the identity of people and other pets (and the sensations that are accompanied by that experience lived with them), in addition to having spatial memory
Thanks to this spatial memory, the cat is able to very easily learn the location of household objects, especially those that he is interested in the most, like his bed, his bowls and his sandbox, and noticing when you add a piece to the furniture that was not there before.
Are you surprised that your cat jumps into bed a few minutes before you? A few days living with you is enough for him to memorize your entire routine, so he knows when you are going to go out, what time you get up, when he can snuggle up with you to sleep, and a long etcetera.
