Does the dog have memory?
According to the dictionary, memory is defined as "a biological and psychic activity which makes it possible to retain previously lived experiences" or even as a "biological and psychic activity which makes it possible to store, preserve and restore informations. »
It is therefore essential in all the processes of learning, recognition (of individuals and situations) and socialization of which the dog is known to be capable.
In light of this observation, we can therefore say with certainty that the dog has a memory. But what type of memory exactly? And is it comparable to that of a human being?
The dog's memories
In reality, there is not a single memory but different types of memories in dogs that can be categorized as follows:
Sensory memory
Sensory or perceptual memory is the memory linked to the five senses. It identifies and retains very briefly and unconsciously the information provided by sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell. Relevant information is then directed to short-term memory.
Short-term memory
As its name suggests, short-term memory is the memory of the present. It is used to retain information very briefly, for a few seconds to a few minutes, after it has "entered" the brain. In dogs, this short-term memory was estimated at 2 minutes by a Swedish study published in 2014 in the scientific journal Behavioral Processes (but the results of this study are however questionable).
This type of memory is constantly requested by the dog. It allows him, for example, to remember that a cat, which he observes in the park opposite his home, has hidden behind a tree. Short-term memory then implies that the dog has not forgotten the existence of the cat even though he no longer sees it and, also, that the dog is capable of mentally representing an "invisible object" (in l occurrence in our example, a cat hidden by the tree trunk).
Short-term memory is the first step in longer-term memorization.
Long-term memory
Long-term memory is memory that can store information for days, months or even years.
We usually break it down into:
- implicit memory which itself includes procedural memory and classical conditioning,
- explicit memory that can be broken down into episodic memory and semantic memory.
Implicit memory
Implicit memory is a type of long-term memory that allows you to acquire automatisms unconsciously, without even having to think about it or make any particular mental effort.
It thus includes procedural memory, which is the memory of know-how and motor skills. It is this type of memory that enables the acquisition and use of motor skills in sporting and working dogs to perform the particular tasks for which they are trained. It is also the memory that intervenes for the use of "natural" abilities of the animal, such as walking or running.
Classical conditioning learning methods, as described in Pavlov's dog experiment, also appeal to the dog's implicit memory.
Explicit memory
Memory is long-term memory that requires some degree of conscious thought. Explicit memory further subdivides itself into 2 types of memory: semantic memory and episodic memory.
Episodic memory
In humans, episodic memory is the long-term memory of events experienced in a particular context (place, date, associated emotion). It is a kind of autobiographical memory that allows us to recount facts, events as we have felt and experienced them, through the prism of our subjectivity. This memory also allows you to travel mentally in time, to remember past events and to project yourself into the future. It supposes the fact of being aware of oneself in order to have the possibility of mentally immersing oneself in a past situation. Does the dog have this ability to remember significant events in his life? To even remember what he did, thought or felt the day before in a given situation? No one knows today with absolute certainty, although a 2016 study published in the journal Current Biology and conducted by Claudia Fuggaza showed that dogs have the ability to go back mentally to remember details of an event. .
If the dog has an episodic memory (which still divides the experts), it would however seem that it is much more limited in time than that of the human being (or at least different from that of the human being) taking into account the observed tendency of the animal to live in the present moment.
" One of the most well-known consequences of this observation is that it would be useless and ineffective to reprimand the dog when it has not been caught in the act of its stupidity. For example, the dog who peed on the living room carpet will not understand being reprimanded when he returns home, whether this return occurs within 10 minutes or 2 hours of his stupidity. The dog does not have the cognitive capacities to make the link between the anger of his master and his stupidity when the reprimand intervenes afterwards. On the other hand, the dog will retain the lesson much better if he is caught in the act because he will then be able to better associate his act in his brain with the reprimand of his master when these two events occur at the same time."
Semantic memory
Semantic memory is the memory of facts and concepts. It allows us to store general knowledge about the world so that we can use it when we need it. In humans, semantic memory is the memory of “encyclopedic” knowledge. For example, thanks to it, we are able to name the days of the week, to state that Paris is the capital of France, etc. This type of memory, unlike episodic memory, is not linked to a particular context: we know, without knowing exactly when and where we learned what we know.
Dogs also have a form of semantic memory that allows them to extract information and meaning from their different experiences. It is this type of memory that would allow him to associate an act with a verbal indication from his master after a learning phase.
What influences a dog's memory skills?
We know that a dog's memorization abilities are influenced by various factors such as his alertness and attention, the repetition of the experience to be memorized and the emotion felt during this experience. The stronger this emotion, the more the experience will imprint itself easily and in the memory of the animal. This is valid for positive experiences for the dog as well as for negative experiences. For example, in the first case, an exercise carried out with rewards that bring a lot of pleasure to the dog will be remembered more easily, while in the second, a single traumatic event may be enough for the dog to develop a phobia from of this bad experience.