When you think about your cat and its memory, do the strains of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals fill your mind? That would be weird.
The question of how long a cat can remember things is much more complex than you might imagine.
A quick aside: Remember when people used to say that goldfish only have a five-second memory? Popular TV science shows Mythbusters actually proved that statement to be way too simplistic.
There is also a deep sensory memory at play. If a kitten has no human contact within the first 6-8 weeks, it is not likely to interact with a person easily in later life.
Cats are a lot like humans with regard to their mental faculties as they get older. It seems that as they get older, they lose some of their function.
Short-term memory and working memory are the essential parts of memory used in day-to-day life. For the most part, a cat will use this memory to navigate around its environment.
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