Timing and episodic-like memory in the rufous hummingbird
Abstract
How animals remember past events has recently received a lot of attention, as
researchers search for an animal model of episodic memory, the system used by humans
to remember their pasts and imagine the future. It has now been repeatedly
demonstrated that animals can remember what they did where and when, although how
similar these memories might be to episodic memory remains controversial. Another
broader point highlighted by this research is the variety of different ways an event’s
location can be specified in time, and how little we know of how animals in the real
world organise their behaviour in time.
In this thesis I had two aims: to expand our understanding of the timing systems
used by a free-living animal to organise its behaviour and, to look for novel ways of
assessing the similarities and differences between animal and human memory. To this
end, I investigated the timing abilities of free-living rufous hummingbirds Selasphorus
rufus, in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. In particular, I looked at the cues
birds use to learn floral refill schedules, the types of temporal rules birds could learn, and the relationships between their memories for What, Where, and When. I also
adapted a test used to study bird memory for use with human participants.
Together, the studies presented in this thesis suggest two potentially useful
future avenues for research into human episodic memory: investigating whether animal
memory is subject to similar distortions to human memory, and looking at human
memory under similar situations to those used to test animals. This research also
highlights the variety of temporal systems hummingbirds can use to guide their
behaviour, and points to the study of timing as a potentially fruitful arena for
investigating how an animal’s cognitive abilities can be predicted by its environment.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Description
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