A cat's brain, although smaller than a human's, has the same frontal, temporal, occipital, and parietal lobes as a normal human brain. In a test of finding food, cats' short-term memory lasted 16 hours, compared to 5 minutes for dogs. Cats have stronger long-term memory. While a cat may only lock some people or places into its long-term memory, it can remember them for many years.
In a cat's lifetime, the most vulnerable ages are between 2 and 7 weeks of age. If a feral cat has not interacted with humans during this time, it may never trust humans. It was also a golden time for domesticated cats to learn to trust and depend on humans. Animal behaviorists have found that there are two memory storage systems in the cat's brain, one is association memory and the other is true memory.
1. Associative memory
Cats associate specific activities with real-life encounters, such as running over every time they hear the sound of a can being opened, because cats associate the sound with the can, and these activities are associated with positive memory. Seeing a vet, for example, which could explain why every time the owner takes out the cat bag, the cat will run or hide, because the cat can remember that last time when it was in the cat bag, it was taken to the hospital.
2. True memory
Short-term and long-term memory, these are the experiences and feelings stored in the memory center of the cat's brain. Short-term memory in cats can be as long as 16 hours, long-term memory is more difficult to define, and cats remember humans or companions with whom they have a special relationship. Another manifestation of cats' long-term memory is they get sad when their owner or companion suddenly leaves or dies. Usually, it stops using the litter box or stops eating. But as cats age, their memory also declines.
There is currently no clear answer to the question of cat memory. Generally, cats have strong love for their home and the ability to recognize their home. Cats that are often stocked and those are allowed to freely enter and leave the house can usually find their way home no matter how far they go. Because cats have relatively developed brains, their intelligence and super-sensing abilities are particularly strong.
A normal cat has a high ability to distinguish directions, so if you lose it, it can still look for the direction and return home. As long as you are good to the cat, the cat knows it very clearly. Normally, if the cat leaves the owner to an unfamiliar place for more than half a month, the cat's memory of the original owner will begin to decline. Strictly speaking, it is not a decline, but getting weaker, the purpose is to better adapt to the new environment.
According to current scientific research, the IQ of a cat is equivalent to that of a 2to 3-year-old human, and it can learn through observation. For example, it can learn how to open a door by watching you do it. While it can be trickier to train, cats do have long-term memory. Scientists have pointed out that animal brains form memories in the same way as humans, while cat brains are no different from 2 to 3-year-old humans. Strictly speaking, compared with cats and dogs, cats have more than 200 times stronger memory than dogs.
Without long-term training, a dog's memory lasts only about 5 minutes, but a cat's memory lasts as long as 16 hours, but only when they are faced with situations in their favor, such as at home. Before cats were domesticated, they depended entirely on their memory to survive in the wild. The process of cats being good at hunting and hunting alone required hours of learning, patience, problem solving and the formation of an appropriate hunting strategy. In order to ensure that they return safely after hunting, cats need to remember the various routes, smells, sounds and dangerous areas they have passed.
