Blog #4: Animal's Memory

by Asami

We are learning “memory”, but it is “human’s memory”. Today, I would like to talk about an animal’s case. Do you know Hachiko? He is the dog known, and his true story can be provable fact that the animal has memory system in their brain.

           Hachiko was a dog who went back and forth to Shibuya station in Tokyo for 11 years to look for his master, who already had died. Recently, Hollywood made a film about this story. You can watch the commercial of it! 

So based on this story, is there memory parts in animals?

(1)  Brain system

      Dog’s brain is made up as same as the human’s so actually dog has a memory part, but it is quite small and he can’t remember things more than humans. It is not be positive, but the dog can’t remember what they did, when they gave a birth. They forget their act even they gave a birth!

(2)  Experience

       Brain system shows that the dog can’t keep their memory, but they have feelings. When they did something and they could feel happy about it, they have a habit of repeating the acts (for feeling happy again!).

        With two factors and Hachiko’s examples, dog can remember things which they feel happy! Hachiko was happy to live with his master, so his feeling made him to keep his memory. But still there are lots of mystery about the dog’s memory. Only one thing we proved is, they can remember with their experiences. …by the way, don’t you think this habit is as same as the human, which the human can remember things with memorable feeling?