How Good is Your Cat’s Memory?

Most of us know that dogs are intelligent animals, but did you know that cats have a surprisingly good memory too? In fact in many respects it is even better than that of the dog.

According to research carried out by Maier and Schneirla, a cat’s long-term spatial recall is at least 16 hours compared to that of a dog of just 5 minutes. Spatial memory concerns the ability to remember environment; it’s what a cat uses to find it’s way back home after an evening out. This is why dogs tend to get lost more often that cats. Obviously, if our cat spends more than a day or two away from home then they are going to be in trouble – in more ways than one.

This information is useful for us to know when we move house and try to reorient our cat to their new home. Whilst their memory of where they live is good (compared to other animals) it doesn’t compare to ours at all well. The idea that we have to keep a cat indoors for weeks or -- heaven forbid – spread butter on their paws, is without foundation.

What about other aspects of a cat’s memory that are relevent to their behavior and our ability to influence it? Well, of particular interest to us is what we do when a cat misbehaves. Imagine coming home and finding that our lovely kitty has been scratching our nice new sofa. What should we do? If we want to show displeasure then that will only be effective if it is associated with the misdemeanor. The bad news is that in this respect the cat’s memory is poor. If kitty scratched the sofa more than a minute or two before we noticed it then don’t be thinking about any sort of punishment. Far better just to ensure that next time the sofa is safely behind a closed door.

There we have an example of how bad a cat’s memory is. But that’s not the whole story. If you feed your cat some bad fish and it makes them sick, research has shown that they’ll remember that for up to 80 days.

So, whilst it can often appear that our cats behave in a very aloof manner, it really is just the way they are and if we understand that then we’ll get more from our relationship with our dear kitty.