If you have been the one to hurt them in some way, they may hold a grudge against you for years. That begs the questions, how long does a cat remember things for? How much information can they retain?
Cats have a very short attention span. They only pay attention to their surroundings for a few seconds before moving on to something else. This makes them great at learning new skills and remembering tasks.
A cat has a brain capacity equivalent to a human toddler. In other words, they can learn and remember things easily. Cats can even recognize faces and sounds. A cat’s brain is similar to humans in the way that it processes information.
In this article, you will find everything you want to know about a cat’s memory. We will explore intelligence, brain structure and types of memory they have. We will also discuss what happens when a cat forgets something.
The Brain Structure Of A Cat
Like humans, cats also have three layers in the brain:
• The Cerebral Cortex (the most important part)
• The Hippocampus (a region that helps with memory)
• The Hypothalamus (a region that regulates body temperature)
The cerebral cortex is responsible for higher functions such as reasoning, problem-solving, planning, language comprehension, etc. It is divided into four different lobes – frontal,occipital, parietal, and temporal.
Each lobe controls specific parts of the body. For example, the frontal lobe controls movement.
The parietal lobe controls balance and spatial awareness. The occipital lobe controls vision and the temporal lobe controls hearing, speech and emotions.
The hippocampus is located deep inside the brain, and it is the place where memories are stored. It works together with the hypothalamus to regulate sleep cycles.
Additionally, cat brains, like ours, are gyrencephalic which means it has folds on the surface.
How Intelligent Is A Cat?
Cats are intelligent because they use all five senses to perceive the world around them. They can distinguish between different objects and people.
Cats can easily understand commands and follow instructions, and can solve problems and make decisions.
Cats have high levels of neuroplasticity and display visual-recognition memory.
They cannot, however, solve complex problems, and they do not have the capacity to understand the cause and effect of their actions like humans do.
How Does A Cat’s Memory Work?
Cats’ memory works similarly to humans. Memories are stored in the form of neurons in the hippocampus. Neurons are cells that communicate with each other. When we think of a neuron, it looks like an electrical wire.
When a neuron receives signals from another neuron, it sends out a signal in return. Neurons connect to one another through synapses. Synapses help us recall past events.
For example, cats see you, as their owner, their eyes send signals to your visual cortex.
This area then tells your cat’s hippocampus what kind of person you are and stores this information in its memory bank.
Memory Types In Cats
There are two main types of memory in animals. These include declarative and non-declarative memories.
Declarative memory is the type of memory that we use to store facts, events, and experiences. Declarative memory is different from procedural memory which stores skills like walking, eating, grooming, etc.
Non-declarative memory is used to store emotional responses and instincts. Non-declarative memory doesn’t require conscious effort. It just happens automatically.
Additionally, cats, like humans, have both long- and short-term memory.
Short term memory or working memory in cats is similar to short term memory in humans. When it comes to storing information, that means they can hold onto small amounts of data for a short period of time.
Working memory allows a cat to solve problems, which comes in handy when hunting. They can remember where their prey is or, with more domesticated cats, where their bowl of food is. It is important to note, though, that they cannot perform multiple tasks at once.
Our short-term memory lasts for around 10 minutes, by comparison a cat’s short term memory lasts anywhere between 2 and 10 seconds.
For long-term memory, cats have a recall and information-retention capacity for as long as 10 years. Their long term memories span over their lifetime and allows them to assess their environments easier.
If a cat reacts in a loving way to a particular person or if they react to certain noises in a skittish way, those are in response to their long-term memories of the person or the noise; not a short term memory assessment.
Their memories are further broken down into different types. Cats have, for example, an associative memory. Associative memory is the ability to remember things based on their relationship or association.
A cat may be able to associate certain sounds with food, or it may learn to play with toys only after playing with a particular toy before.
Additionally, cats have recognition memory which may be used when you give your cat a treat, he may come back later to eat it. They don’t have semantic memory, either. This means they cannot understand abstract concepts.
However, they do have episodic memory. This means they can remember past events.
Memory Over A Cat’s Lives
When they are kittens, cats learn and memorize survival skills through playing, which is essential for their development. The first two to eight weeks of a kitten’s life is crucial and should be spent bonding with other cats, not humans.
As cats age, their memory may be affected and, like humans, their learning ability and memory will decrease and slow down a lot.
This is because it becomes more difficult for them to recall stored information, with the overlying cause being because they lose brain cells as they age.
Cats may forget things because they get distracted or when they are stressed. Equally, when a cat is ill or dying, it may result in forgetting where certain things are, like their food bowl or their litter box.
End Of The Tail
After reading this article, hopefully you are better informed on how long a cat’s memory is and use that knowledge to understand them better and which memories to make for them to have a wonderful quality of life.
I’m Courtney Trent and I hope that I can answer some burning questions that you have about cats, as well as some questions that you’d never have thought to ask before.
I am aiming to shed new light on these amazing pets and hopefully change some people’s opinions on them. Also, let’s talk about wild cats - they’re just as awesome as domestic cats!
So, stay a while and learn more about domestic and wild cats from Windhaven Ocicats.
