2006-08-03 20:14:50 · 4 answers · asked by ibid 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
Yes, they absolutely have long-term memories. My dog was traumatized by this one other dog in our building, and she hates that dog, seriously, and is now cautious around other dogs... and she was never like this before the incident.
If animals didn't have long-term memory, they wouldn't learn anything necessarily, because they have to associate an experience with an outcome.
They also remember places and smells. Their memory might be a little different in nature as we usually associate memories with visual stimuli, but it's been said that smells actually evokes the most and strongest memories in humans. That people can remember smells they experienced as a baby more than a sight.
2006-08-04 03:35:08 · answer #1 · answered by Stephanie S 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some have long term memories in that they are able to return to specific places. For example salmon always return to the place of their birth to spawn. But I don't think they remember specific events.
2006-08-04 03:23:17 · answer #2 · answered by funda62 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course, depending on species and the size of the brain. Just ask a bear if it remembers that amazingly painfull device, called a beartrap that clamped down on it's foot. They learn that bear-trap=pain. Rodents do the same with association with mousetraps. Humans do the same when they divorce. Need I say more?
2006-08-04 03:21:46 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think they can. elephants can remember the killers of their parents and attack them when they see them the next time. but that's for some animals only. goldfishes, for example, only has a memory span of 3 seconds, which is why they can survive swimming around he fish tank the whole day.
2006-08-04 03:19:20 · answer #4 · answered by quartz 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋