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Episodic-like memory in pigeons
Open accessAbstract
It has been proposed that memory for personal experiences (episodic memory, rather than semantic memory) relies on the conscious review of past experience and thus is unique to humans. In an attempt to demonstrate episodic-like memory in animals, we first trained pigeons to respond to the (nonverbal) question "Did you just peck or did you just refrain from pecking?" by training them on a symbolic matching task with differential responding required to the two line-orientation samples and reinforcing the choice of a red comparison if they had pecked and the choice of a green comparison if they had not pecked. Then, in Experiment 1, after providing the conditions for (but not requiring) the pigeons to peck at one new stimulus (a yellow hue) but not at another (a blue hue), we tested them with the new hue stimuli and the red and green comparisons. In Experiment 2, we tested the pigeons with novel stimuli (a circle, which they spontaneously pecked, and a dark response key, which they did not peck) and the red and green comparisons. In both experiments, pigeons chose the comparison appropriate to the response made to the test stimulus. Thus, the pigeons demonstrated that they could remember specific details about their past experiences, a result consistent with the notion that they have the capacity for forming episodic-like memories.
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In the citing paper
“That said, training animals to explicitly encode and report information in an anticipated memory test, as is required for what–where–when memory experiments, may result in the application of non-episodic mechanisms to solve these tasks [74,79–84].”
From Is episodic-like memory like episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [79]
In the citing paper
“By contrast, when information is encoded incidentally and subsequently tested in an unexpected memory assessment, the transformation of this information into a preselected future action is impossible [79,82,85,90]”
From Is episodic-like memory like episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [79]
In the citing paper
“Interestingly, this effect was not apparent in the standard what–where–when task, leading the authors to conclude that non-episodic solutions are possible in what–where–when tasks, as suggested by others [79,85].”
From Is episodic-like memory like episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [79]
In the citing paper
“Furthermore, the incidental encoding and unexpected question paradigm, also by design, directly represents the automatic encoding feature of episodic memory [79].”
From Is episodic-like memory like episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [79]
In the citing paper
“Some studies, however, use non-natural methodological elements to test for episodic-like memory [75], such as pecking or approaching certain shapes or coloured panels that are presented in front of the subjects [56,78–81], or requiring subjects to recall their own or others’ previous actions out of an array of behaviours [95,96].”
From Is episodic-like memory like episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [79]
In the citing paper
“The trial-unique learning paradigm has been successfully implemented in rodents (rats: Kart-Teke et al. 2006; mice: Dere et al. 2005) and birds (Zentall et al. 2001).”
From Keeping track of time: evidence for episodic-like memory in great apes (2010) · cites this paper as Zentall et al. 2001
In the citing paper
“However, as pointed out by Crystal (2009), episodic memory is defined as a long-term memory system and the unexpected question experiment carried out by Zentall et al. (2001) only deals with short-time delays between the encoding event and the experimental question.”
From Keeping track of time: evidence for episodic-like memory in great apes (2010) · cites this paper as Zentall et al. 2001
In the citing paper
“The results from this experiment showed that pigeons were able to report which action they performed in the past.”
From Keeping track of time: evidence for episodic-like memory in great apes (2010) · cites this paper as Zentall et al. 2001
In the citing paper
“Therefore, one weakness in Clayton’s experimental approach is that it does not measure memory for unique experiences because they require training.”
From Keeping track of time: evidence for episodic-like memory in great apes (2010) · cites this paper as Zentall et al. 2001
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Metadata
- Authors
- Zentall, T. R., Clement, T. S., Bhatt, R. S., & Allen, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Kentucky (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zentall, Thomas R.
- Venue
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
- Published
- 2001-12
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 685-690
- ISSN
- 1069-9384 (ISSN-L)
- 1531-5320
- OpenAlex
- W1989109048
- Cited by
- 178
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 1.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh059194-03)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH-59194)
- 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, pigeons, animal memory, semantic memory, novel stimuli, avian cognition
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Memory, Short-Term, Columbidae, Teaching
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