Feline Memories Found to be Fleeting
Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com


A new study has measured just low long cats can remember certain kinds of information—10 minutes.

The research was designed primarily to compare cats' working memory of their recent movements with their visual memories, and found that cats remember better with their bodies than their eyes when they have encountered an object placed in their path by say, an annoying owner or experimenter.


When a cat steps over a stray toy or shoe left on the floor on the way to its food dish, it has to coordinate the stepping action of its front legs with its hind legs.


"Animals, including humans, unconsciously keep track of the location of objects relative to the body as they move, and this tracking is largely dependent on signals associated with movement of the body," said researcher Keir Pearson of the University of Alberta in Canada.


Though researchers were aware of this association, they wondered exactly how kitty remembers to bring her hind legs up after her front legs have cleared an obstacle.


To test cats' coordination, the researchers looked at how well they could remember having just stepped over a hurdle. The researchers stopped cats after their front legs had cleared an obstacle, but before their hind legs went over.


They then distracted the animals with food and lowered the obstacle to see how the tabbies would respond. The cats remembered having stepped over the hurdle for at least 10 minutes, bringing their hind legs up to clear the object, even though it wasn't there.


To compare this working memory to the cats' visual memory of the obstacle, the researchers repeated the experiment, this time stopping the cats just before they made their first step over the hurdle.


Turns out the cats weren't so good at remembering what they had seen but not yet done: when the obstacle was removed this time, the cats forgot it had even been there in the first place and continued on their way.


"There's not high-stepping at all," Pearson told LiveScience.


"We've found that the long-lasting memory for guiding hind legs over an obstacle requires stepping of the forelegs over the obstacle," Pearson said. "The main surprise was how short lasting the visual memory on its own was—just a few seconds when animals were stopped before their forelegs stepped over the obstacle."


Research with horses and dogs has shown similar results, Pearson said.


Similar memories may play a role in humans' ability to navigate objects in the dark or remember where they parked their car in the morning.


By actually walking from your car into your office, you solidify the memory of what space your car is in and don't spend half an hour looking for it—well, not usually.
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I wouldn't want to appear to be putting down the researchers at the U of A ... seeing as I graduated from there myself .... BUT, as I read this info the first thing that came to my mind was whether or not the cat (or horse or dog) could see the hurdle if it was under their tummy while they were distracted. It made sense to me that they remembered putting their front paws over the hurdle and if they didn't see that the hurdle was still under them then they just assumed it was and lifted their hind legs up and over too. If they were stopped and distracted before stepping over the hurdle and then it was lowered ... well, they could see that it was no longer in front of them and then they just walked straight across. I dunno .....
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Oh, and about losing my car in a parking lot, I KNOW it makes no difference if I remember walking away from my car and into a shopping mall. It's a matter of remembering if I walked away from my car on the side of the mall or the front of the mall .... and was that my memory from today ... or yesterday ...

lol..i always park in the same area. most of the light poles have numbers in the parking lot. i always park in the same number. can't be having losts monkeys wandering aound.

the cat i had years ago always left her toys in the same spot. was it smell..or memorex?
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And I always park in the same row on the same side of both Meijers and Walmart or I never would be able to find the car!
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