Humans don’t use the same type of memory to recall the capitals of the world as they do to flash back to a visit to a friend’s house the week prior. The latter, which allows people to revisit past personal experiences in their minds, is known as “episodic memory,” and was once thought to be exclusive to humans. Although there is still debate about the extent of this type of memory in nonhuman animals, research has suggested that it is shared by groups as diverse as rodents, cephalopods, and birds—and findings published July 25 in Current Biology add bottlenosed dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and potentially other brainy cetaceans to the list.
Over the past two decades, scientists have endeavored to develop tests to assess episodic memory in various animals. Jays, rats, dogs, and cuttlefish are among those that have successfully passed such tests. Curiously, “whilst dolphins are often thought of by ...
