Elements of episodic-like memory in animals.
Open accessAbstract
A number of psychologists have suggested that episodic memory is a uniquely human phenomenon and, until recently, there was little evidence that animals could recall a unique past experience and respond appropriately. Experiments on food-caching memory in scrub jays question this assumption. On the basis of a single caching episode, scrub jays can remember when and where they cached a variety of foods that differ in the rate at which they degrade, in a way that is inexplicable by relative familiarity. They can update their memory of the contents of a cache depending on whether or not they have emptied the cache site, and can also remember where another bird has hidden caches, suggesting that they encode rich representations of the caching event. They make temporal generalizations about when perishable items should degrade and also remember the relative time since caching when the same food is cached in distinct sites at different times. These results show that jays form integrated memories for the location, content and time of caching. This memory capability fulfils Tulving's behavioural criteria for episodic memory and is thus termed 'episodic-like'. We suggest that several features of episodic memory may not be unique to humans.
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Episodic memory cannot be directly studied in animals given the lack of behavioral markers for their conscious experience.
“It is important to note that given the requirement of a conscious experience to form an episodic memory, at present episodic memory cannot be directly studied in animals given the lack of behavioral markers for their conscious experience (Clayton et al., 2001).”
From Aerobic Exercise as a Tool to Improve Hippocampal Plasticity and Function in Humans: Practical Implications for Mental Health Treatment (2016) · cites this paper as Clayton et al., 2001
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Clayton, N. S., Griffiths, D. P., Emery, N. J., & Dickinson, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Clayton, N. S.
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2001-09-29
- Volume
- 356
- Issue
- 1413
- Pages
- 1483-1491
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- OpenAlex
- W2138140089
- Cited by
- 289
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 0.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- episodic-like memory, animal memory, scrub jay, temporal memory, spatial memory, temporal generalization, comparative cognition
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Birds, Feeding Behavior, Memory
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