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Have you ever wondered about the memory of cats? Have you ever called your cat by name and he didn't respond? Are you surprised how he manages to come home even though he knows he goes out every day to visit his feline friends? Is it memory or instinct?
Many people think that animals, including those that have been domesticated, are unable to remember things that happen to them or learn new things. However, everyone who has a pet or lives with animals knows that this is not true. Would you like to know if your cat has a good memory? Keep reading this PeritoAnimal article!
How does feline memory work?
As with other animals, including humans, feline memory resides in a part of the brain. The cat's brain occupies less than 1% of his body mass, but when it comes to memory and intelligence, the determinant is the number of existing neurons.
Thus, a cat has three hundred million neurons. Don't you know what this amounts to? So you can have a comparison term, dogs have about one hundred and sixty million neurons, and biologically the information retention capacity of cats is far superior to that of dogs.
Some studies have shown that cats' short-term memory is around 16 hours, allowing them to recall recent events. However, for these events to pass into long-term memory they must be vitally important to the cat, so that he is able to carry out the selection and save this event as something that could be useful for the future. The exact mechanism through which this process takes place is still unknown.
The memory of domestic cats in addition to being selective, it is episodic, that is, cats are able to remember the location of things, certain people, routines, positive or negative events, among many other things that they experienced. It is the intensity with which they live and feel certain experiences that makes them store or not this information in the brain.
As with humans, some studies have shown that cats have cognitive abilities that deteriorate as they reach old age. This condition is called feline cognitive dysfunction, which usually affects cats over 12 years of age.
Does memory allow the cat to learn?
THE Note and the own experiences of cats are the ones that allow the feline to learn everything it needs to live comfortably. How does the cat enjoy everything it observes and lives? Through memory that selects what is useful and allows the cat to react more appropriately to his interests the next time he encounters a certain situation.
Cat memory works this way in both domestic and wild cats. From kittens, cats watch their mother to learn everything you need. In this learning process, the sensations that the cat experiences during life, whether good or bad, are linked. In this way, the cat is able to react to stimuli related to the time of eating and recognize the sounds of those people or other pets that try to hurt him.
This system allows the cat keep yourself safe from possible dangers, identify his tutor and remember everything that is positive associated with him, such as delicious food, affection and games.
What the cat learns is directly related to the benefits that the cat is able to acquire through this learning. If the cat finds that something is not useful, it is very likely that this information will be eliminated with short-term memory. For this reason, it is very difficult to teach a cat to stop scratching a place he likes so much, although it is possible to teach a cat to use a scratcher.
What is the cat's memory capacity?
There are still no studies that determine how long a cat can remember things. Some investigations only point to three years, but anyone who has a cat can relate behaviors to situations that the cat lived much longer.
The truth is that there is still no absolute opinion in this regard. What is known is that cats are not only able to recall favorable or unfavorable situations, to know whether or not to repeat, but also store in their memory the identity of people and other pets (and the sensations that accompany the lived experiences with them), in addition to having spatial memory.
Thanks to this spatial memory, the cat is able to learn very easily the location objects in the house, especially those that interest him most, such as the bed, litter box, water pot and food. In addition, they are the first to notice that you have changed something in the decor.
Are you surprised that your cat jumps into bed a few minutes before you do? After a few days living in your house, the cat quickly learns all your routine and so it knows the time you go out, the time you get up, when it can go to bed with you, etc.
