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Can animals recall the past and plan for the future?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 4, pages 685–691 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

According to the 'mental time travel hypothesis' animals, unlike humans, cannot mentally travel backwards in time to recollect specific past events (episodic memory) or forwards to anticipate future needs (future planning). Until recently, there was little evidence in animals for either ability. Experiments on memory in food-caching birds, however, question this assumption by showing that western scrub-jays form integrated, flexible, trial-unique memories of what they hid, where and when. Moreover, these birds can adjust their caching behaviour in anticipation of future needs. We suggest that some animals have elements of both episodic-like memory and future planning.

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Figure 1: A cartoon of the procedure used to test episodic-like memory in western scrub-jays.
Figure 2: A western scrub-jay caching wax worms.
Figure 3: A cartoon of the procedure used to test whether the western scrub-jays could adjust their caching strategies to minimize potential stealing by other birds.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Grindley Trust to N.S.C. and a BBSRC grant to N.S.C. and A.D., and conducted within a UK Medical Research Council Cooperative Grant. We thank S. de Kort, N. Emery, R. Morris and T. Robbins for comments and discussion. Special thanks go to N. Emery for his original artwork, and to I. Cannell for his photographic skills.

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  1. the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, United Kingdom

    Nicola S. Clayton, Timothy J. Bussey & Anthony Dickinson

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  1. Nicola S. Clayton
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Correspondence to Nicola S. Clayton.

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Clayton, N., Bussey, T. & Dickinson, A. Can animals recall the past and plan for the future?. Nat Rev Neurosci 4, 685–691 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1180

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