People and animals need working memory in order to function properly. This is the part of short-term memory concerned with immediate conscious perceptual processing. Another definition is: a limited capacity store for retaining information for a brief period while performing mental operations on that information. It allows us to interact with the world as we briefly memorise the objects around us enabling us to position ourselves and our hands, for example, to avoid those objects or grab them. It seems, to me, as well that when we type on a keyboard, we use working memory to enable our hands to move from one key to the next proficiently.
Well, there’s a nice study on the Internet which investigates the working memory of domestic cats. And they found that cats’ working memory lasts for up to 10 minutes, which is much longer than had previously been reported. Although the study was published in 2007, I’ve only just discovered it! But it seems particularly relevant today when bearing in mind those clever cat videos on TikTok of domestic cats navigating a large number of small obstacles placed on a hard floor in a home. The cats pick their way through these obstacles which can easily be knocked over. I have one of the videos below. Note: not all cats are infallible! Sometimes they knock over the objects and I think this is because they have learned that it is of no consequence. It is a result of living in the human environment and learning about human objects.
When you think about it, it is astonishing because the cat can see the obstacles and therefore place their forelegs on the ground to avoid them but their hind legs are about 2 feet behind their eyes, and the cat is not watching them. The hind legs are being positioned accurately because of the cat’s working memory. They have memorised the position of those obstacles and placed their hind legs precisely to avoid them.
The scientists say that walking cats “consistently look two or three steps ahead when walking”. They memorise the terrain ahead of them and can avoid obstacles even if they no longer have vision. And they state that “walking quadrupeds must rely on some form of visual memory to guide their hind legs over obstacles”.
They devised a test. They allowed cats to use their forelegs to walk over an obstacle but stopped them using their hind legs to walk over it. They then removed the cat from that situation and waited a while. At this time the cat was distracted by food. They then placed the cat back onto the area where the obstacle was situated. The cats had not seen the obstacle since they had been removed from the area. They positioned the cat in such a way that only the hind legs had to go over the obstacle. The hind legs avoided the obstacle.
They concluded that “cats remember the size and location of an object straddled between the front and hind legs for very long periods of time, up to at least 10 minutes”.
They also decided that for a cat to memorise the position of obstacles the cat had to step over the obstacle with the forelegs to create this long-lasting memory to allow them to guide the hind legs. Therefore, the memory was dependent not only upon a visual appraisal but the movement of the forelegs. They stated that: “This is strong evidence that a neural signal related to the stepping of the forelegs is responsible for the activation or enhancement of additional structures of the nervous system to produce a long-lasting memory”.
So, a signal is sent to the brain relating to the movement of the forelegs which updates the cat’s short-term memory. They call this “movement signals”. I hope you found the article interesting. Just a bit more cat knowledge ✔️👌😊.
