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Episodic memory is the ability to consciously recall personal experiences and events, and in particular, to consciously place oneself within that memory. As such, it is typically associated with self-awareness. Self-awareness is something that has typically been seen as a uniquely human trait. It has been observed that some species, such as jays, hummingbirds, rats and apes, exhibit "episodic-like" memory, but this has been observed for behavior that is required for them to survive in their environment and not necessarily a general capability.
A group of researchers from Hungary devised a set of experiments to test the episodic memory capacity of dogs. They worked with 17 dog owners and had them train their dogs in the method known as do-as-I-do, where dogs are trained to imitate the action of their owner. For instance, if the owner jumps up in the air, when the dog is commanded "do it", the dog jumps in the air. Next, the owners would perform actions, but wouldn't require the dogs to imitate them and would have them lie down. However, after a certain amount of time, they would unexpectedly command their dogs to "do it" and the dog would have to remember what action it was that their owner performed. In these trials, the dogs correctly performed the action 33 out of 35 trials. They presented their work in the journal Current Biology .
"It shows that our dogs remember events much like we do, and [it] blows out of the water the old way that most scientists would characterize animal memory," says Brian Hare, a dog cognition expert at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved in the study. "Our dogs' memories aren't based simply on repetition and reward."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @10:05AM
But "copycat" plays the dog vs cat idiom, or in many cases dog owner vs humans owned by their cats.
I think this is an interesting experiment, but IMHO having some form of episodic memory doesn't really qualify for a title like "Study shows Dog thinking closer to Apes and Humans". I think it means dogs understand more during the training process than most accedmics gave them credit for. Pet owners often see the talent & abilities their pets exhibit and know that there's more going on inside those little brains than we understand or imagine.
(Score: 2) by fubari on Monday November 28 2016, @05:32PM
I agree with what you say, I'm probably overstating the case with "closer".
Anon wrote:
IMHO having some form of episodic memory doesn't really qualify for a title like "Study shows Dog thinking closer to Apes and Humans".
Consider this excerpt from The Fine Article (1st paragraph, 4th sentence):
(emphasis added)
It sounds at least a little closer to me.
*shrug* Still, I struggle with how to phrase it. I can see how the use of "closer" could have equivalence connotations that I didn't intend.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28 2016, @07:38PM
In the end the dogs are great, and their masters think they (the masters) are smarter for having taught their dogs how to be more human-like in their thinking. The dogs just want to turn everything into a party ... which does indeed make them more human-like.