Memory Day.

Today is March 21 and according to the crazy calendar, it is Memory Day. So of course my human had to look into information about dogs and memory.  And boy did she find some lots of information and some of it was conflicting.  For example, according to some sources, they claim that we dogs live in the here and now.  And they say we dogs don't have "memories" the way that humans do- we have "imprints of occurrences"and associations.  So for example, if, when we are a puppy, we meet something scary, like a motorcycle going down the street, we then imprint the fear of that loud scary vehicle.  They claim that if we perform a bad behavior, like pooping in the house, there is no point in scolding us after the fact, because we don't remember or understand why we are being scolded.  And they say, as for remembering a person - or maybe even a dog from a long time ago,  it isn't really memory - but rather our recognition of the SMELL of that person or dog.  We associate that smell with that person.  We also associate things like the sound of the treat jar opening with the treat.   They say that our short term memory is like 70 seconds.  They claim that after that amount of time, we forget that you just gave us a treat.  The thing is, we dogs supposedly don't measure time the way that humans do.  They say that's the reason we get so excited when you return after a short period of time, and we are as excited as if you left us for a few hours.  So those sources basically say our "memory" is much less complex than that of humans. 

BUT - last year, other research indicated that we dogs DO remember more than humans once thought.  Researchers in Hungary claim that we dogs may have a type of memory that was once thought to be unique to humans.  They say there are two kinds explicit of memory - which is the memory you use when you specifically want to remember something.  The first is called semantic memory and it is the kind of memory you use to consciously remember or learn a specific thing.  Like language and words.  For example, you learn that a certain word represents a certain thing - and memorize it.  Like when we dogs are learning that the word "sit" means to put our bum on the ground.   And we know examples of dogs who have great semantic memory - like that Border Collie who can recall over 1000 words for various objects.  The other type of memory is called episodic - where you remember things from the past, without actually trying to memorize it.  So it's like remembering that trip you took last year.  Or the fact that you went to get gas for the car yesterday.  You don't specifically try to remember the event at the time, but you are able to recount it later.  Anyway,  people always thought that we dogs didn't HAVE episodic memory - because we live in the here and now.  And really, part of the problem is that we can't TELL you about something from the past.  But through a several step experiment, the researchers in Hungary were able to demonstrate that we dogs MAY have episodic memory after all.  Now this was preliminary research and not everyone is convinced that we have this complex type of memory. Yet.

And I'm here to tell you, we DO.  Just because we can't TELL you about what we did earlier in the day or last week, it doesn't mean that we don't remember!!  Case in point.  Human walks in the door and is greeted by a dog whose ears are all inside out.  Because he got in the garbage.  Ya THINK we don't remember or have a memory of what we did?!  And when we return from a "call of the wild" and we slowly walk back to the house.  Ya think we don't remember that we were just naughty?!  Some humans underestimate just how complex our brains really are!  

So that's the preliminary scoop on memory.  Now I must go and remind my human to give me another treat.  Because we know, she has a tendency to forget...

Have a good one!