DO ELEPHANTS EVER FORGET?1
Open accessAbstract
Three adult female elephants (Elephas maximus) were tested on a light‐dark discrimination problem with an 8‐yr intertrial interval. The first subject took only 6 min to reach criterion and made only two errors, suggesting remarkable retention. The other two subjects were found to have visual anomalies that would have gone undetected without this research.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Markowitz et al. (1975) found that one Asian elephant who had learned a light versus dark discrimination task reached criteria (20 consecutive correct responses) in 6 min with only two errors (out of 43 trials) when tested again 8 years later, suggesting long-term retention of the discrimination criteria.
“Markowitz et al. (1975) found that when one Asian elephant who had learned a light versus dark discrimination task was tested again 8 years later, she reached criteria (20 consecutive correct responses) in 6 min with only two errors (out of 43 trials), suggesting long-term retention of the discrimination criteria.”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Markowitz et al., 1975
Two other elephants, who were later found to have deficiencies in their vision, did not perform well after 8 years.
“However, two other elephants, who were later found to have deficiencies in their vision, did not perform well after 8 years (Markowitz et al., 1975).”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Markowitz et al., 1975
Asian elephants have been able to learn which is the rewarded response between black versus white and large versus small objects, light versus dark, and different patterns.
“Asian elephants have been able to learn which is the rewarded response between black versus white and large versus small objects (Nissani et al., 2005), light versus dark (Markowitz et al., 1975), and different patterns (Rensch, 1956, 1957).”
From Do elephants really never forget? What we know about elephant memory and a call for further investigation (2025) · cites this paper as Markowitz et al., 1975
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Duke-Elder, S. (1958) · Mosby eBooks · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.7241 · Cited by 307 · see citing works
Visuelles Lernvermögen eines Indischen Elefanten
Rensch, B., & Altevogt, R. (2010) · Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie · doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1953.tb00387.x · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Duke-Elder, S. (Ed.) Systems of ophthalmology (Vol. 1: The eye in evolution). St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Company, 1958.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Successful acquisition of an olfactory discrimination test by Asian elephants, Elephas maximus
Arvidsson, J., Amundin, M., & Laska, M. (2012) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.08.021 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
SIMULTANEOUS VISUAL DISCRIMINATION IN ASIAN ELEPHANTS
Nissani, M., Hoefler-Nissani, D., Lay, U. T., & Htun, U. W. (2005) · Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior · doi:10.1901/jeab.2005.34-04 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Plotnik, J. M., & Jacobson, S. L. (2022) · Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101148 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
von Dürckheim, K. E. M., Hoffman, L. C., Leslie, A., Hensman, M. C., Hensman, S., Schultz, K., & Lee, S. (2018) · Applied Animal Behaviour Science · doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2017.12.004 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Aging: What We Can Learn From Elephants
Chusyd, D. E., Ackermans, N. L., Austad, S. N., Hof, P. R., Mielke, M. M., Sherwood, C. C., & Allison, D. B. (2021) · Frontiers in Aging · doi:10.3389/fragi.2021.726714 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Hope, S. F., Willgohs, K. R., Dittakul, S., & Plotnik, J. M. (2025) · Learning & Behavior · doi:10.3758/s13420-024-00655-y · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Markowitz, H., Schmidt, M., Nadal, L., & Squier, L.
- Affiliations
- Reed College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Markowitz, Hal
- ORCID
- Schmidt, Michael
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1975-09
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 333-335
- ISSN
- 0021-8855 (ISSN-L)
- 1938-3703
- PMC
- PMC1311860
- OpenAlex
- W2085962329
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- elephants, Asian elephant, long-term retention, light-dark discrimination, visual disturbances, memory, animal learning
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Conditioning, Operant, Elephants, Female, Memory, Time Factors, Visual Perception
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
