Summary: A new study finds that Eurasian jays exhibit episodic memory, a type of memory previously thought to be unique to humans. The birds were able to recall random details from past events, such as the visual characteristics of cups used in a food-hiding experiment.
This finding suggests that episodic memory may not be exclusive to humans and may help jays find stored food.
Key facts:
- Eurasian jays demonstrate episodic memory by recalling random details of past events.
- This ability is similar to “mental time travel” in humans, which allows us to consciously re-examine past experiences.
- Episodic memory may help jays locate stored food.
source: PLANE
Eurasian jays can recall random details of past events, which is characteristic of episodic memory in humans, according to a study published May 15, 2024 in the open access journal PLUS ONE by James Davies of the University of Cambridge, UK, and colleagues.
When recalling events, people have the ability to “mentally time travel,” consciously re-thinking past experiences and potentially recalling details that seemed unimportant in the moment. Some researchers suggest that this “episodic memory” is unique to humans.
In this study, Davis and colleagues conducted a memory experiment to test for episodic memory in seven Eurasian jays, birds that excel at remembering the location of stored food.
In the experiment, birds watched as food was placed under one cup in a row of four identical cups and were then rewarded for choosing the correct baited cup.
Over several trials, the birds were trained to identify the correct cup by memorizing its position in a line. Then, at test, the jays were given an unexpected memory assessment: they watched as food was placed under one of the cups, which all already had unique visual features, but then were separated from the cups for 10 minutes while the cups were moved and rearranged.
Despite the changed positions of the cups and the added time delay, the birds still correctly identified the baited cup by their visual features 70% of the time.
These results suggest that although the visual differences between the cups were unimportant during training, the birds were able to notice these differences at test and recall them later, similar to episodic memory in humans.
This study shows that episodic memory can help jays find food stores, and the researchers suggest that future studies can investigate whether the birds can perform similar feats of memory in other non-food scenarios.
The authors add: “Because jays were able to remember details that had no particular value or relevance at the time the memory was formed, this suggests that they are able to store, recall and access incidental information in within a remembered event. It is an ability that characterizes the type of human memory by which we mentally “relive” past events (or episodes), known as ‘episodic’ memory.’
About this memory research news
Author: Hannah Abdullah
source: PLANE
Contact: Hanna Abdallah – PLOS
Image: Image credit: Neuroscience News
Original Research: Free access.
“Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) show episodic memory through incidental encoding of information” by James R. Davies et al. PLoS One
Summary
Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) exhibit episodic memory through incidental encoding of information
Episodic memory describes the conscious rethinking of our memories and is often considered a uniquely human ability.
Because these phenomenological components are built into his definition, major problems arise when examining the presence of episodic memory in nonhuman animals.
Importantly, however, when we as humans remember a particular experience, we may remember details of that experience that were irrelevant to our needs, thoughts, or desires at that moment.
However, this “incidental” information is automatically encoded as part of memory and subsequently recalled within a holistic representation of the event.
The incidental encoding and unexpected questions paradigm represents this characteristic feature of human episodic memory and can be used to study memory recall in nonhuman animals.
However, without evidence of the associated phenomenology during recall, this type of memory is called “episodic.”– like memory’.
Using this approach, we tested seven Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) on their ability to use incidental visual information (related to observed experimenters, made “caches”), to solve an unexpected memory test.
The birds performed above chance levels, suggesting that Eurasian jays can encode, retain, recall, and access incidental visual information within a remembered event, an ability indicative of episodic memory in humans.
