Scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) remember the relative time of caching as well as the location and content of their caches.
Abstract
Two experiments examined whether food-storing scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) could remember when they cached particular food items as well as what they cached and where. In Experiment 1, scrub jays cached and recovered perishable "wax worms" (wax moth larvae) and nonperishable peanuts in 2 visuospatially distinct and trial-unique trays. The birds searched preferentially for fresh wax worms if they had cached them 4 hr earlier but rapidly learned to search for peanuts and avoid decayed wax worms that had been cached 124 hr previously. This pattern also was observed when the food items were removed before recovery on test trials. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 using a procedure in which both types of food were cached in different sides of the same caching tray: On the basis of a single, trial-unique experience, scrub jays could remember the relative time of caching as well as what type of food was cached in each cache site.
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Experiment 1 established that apes can remember the what, where and when of an event.
“Experiment 1 established that apes can remember the what, where and when of an event, although this does not indicate the structure of the memories that support subjects’ choices (Clayton and Dickinson 1999; Clayton et al. 2001, 2003a).”
From Keeping track of time: evidence for episodic-like memory in great apes (2010) · cites this paper as Clayton and Dickinson 1999
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“For example, an experiment demonstrated that birds (scrub jays) reliably behaved as if they remembered what kind of food they had hidden, where they had hidden it, and when they had hidden it [92].”
- Authors
- Clayton, N. S., & Dickinson, A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Comparative Psychology
- Published
- 1999
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 403-416
- ISSN
- 0093-4127 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2087
- 0735-7036
- OpenAlex
- W1971678556
- Cited by
- 227
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 3.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of comparative psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r29ns035465-05)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS35465-03)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- scrub jay, Aphelocoma coerulescens, food caching, temporal memory, spatial memory, perishable food, memory for time, animal cognition
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Appetitive Behavior, Birds, Food, Memory, Mental Processes
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