Teaching and Learning Guide for: Episodic Memory in Animals

Episodic memory is the kind of memory which gives us rich and detailed recollections of past events. Whether any animals have episodic memory is a contested question in psychology, behavioural biology and philosophy: some argue that episodic memory is widely distributed in the animal kingdom, whilst others suggest that it is uniquely human. This topic raises philosophical questions of relevance to courses in Philosophy of Mind, Animal Ethics, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Biology and Epistemology. One set of questions relates to natural kinds in the mind: what does it mean for humans and animals to have the same kinds of memory systems, even when those memory systems inevitably differ in some respects? Others relate to the evolution of the mind: what does episodic memory do for us, why did it evolve and how might it have evolved differently in other lineages? And some are ethical: how might different forms of memory and different ways of relating to one's past self affect animals' ethical status? All of these provide concrete case studies that can be used to introduce students to more general questions: for example, how can we identify the ‘same’ kinds of mental states across species? How can we study the evolution of the mind, and what does doing so tell us about minds today and the ways in which we use memory to gain and store knowledge? How do the kinds of mind different animals have relate to their moral status? Tulving, E. 2005. “Episodic Memory and Autonoesis: Uniquely Human?” In The Missing Link in Cognition. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161564.003.0001. Tulving coined the term ‘episodic memory’ and set the agenda for much of the psychology of memory from the 1970s onwards. This paper is his most developed discussion of whether animals can have episodic memory. He argues that they cannot, and in the process introduces several important distinctions in a provocative and stimulating way. Clayton, N. S., and A. Dickinson. 1998. “Episodic-Like Memory During Cache Recovery by Scrub Jays.” Nature 395, no. 6699: 6699–7274. https://doi.org/10.1038/26216. This paper reports one of the most influential experiments testing for episodic memory in other animals. The paper is short and well-written, and should be accessible to philosophy students who have not read experimental papers before. The experimental design does not require technical knowledge to understand and its implications are ripe for discussion in class. Davies, J. R., & Clayton, N. (2024). Is episodic-like memory like episodic memory. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0397. This review paper provides an accessible, up-to-date summary of empirical evidence about episodic-like memory in animals, exploring its resemblance to human episodic memory across a number of dimensions. Boyle, A. 2020. “The Impure Phenomenology of Episodic Memory.” Mind & Language 35, no. 5: 641–660. https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12261. Episodic memory is often associated with a feeling of ‘reliving’ the remembered event. Many have suggested that characterising episodic memory in terms of this felt quality makes it impossible to detect in animals (e.g., Items (1) and (2) above). This paper rejects this claim, arguing that it is possible to detect the felt quality of episodic recollection in non-linguistic animals. The paper connects to more general debates about what can be known about the conscious experiences of other animals. Boyle, A. 2022. “Episodic Memory in Animals: Optimism, Kind Scepticism and Pluralism.” In Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory. Routledge. This paper reviews and advances the debate about what it takes for animals to count as having episodic memory, providing more detail on what the Philosophy Compass piece calls the ‘Problem of Interspecific Variation’. Published as a pair with Keven 2022 (item (6) below), this paper argues that we should be pluralists about episodic memory in animals, in the sense that animals may or may not count as having episodic memory depending on our varied interests in asking whether they do. Keven, N. 2022. “What Does it Take to Remember Episodically?” In Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory, 206–222. Taylor and Francis. http://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/bitstream/handle/11693/112037/What_does_it_take_to_remember_episodically.pdf?sequence=1. This paper advances a sceptical view about episodic memory in animals, arguing that although animals may remember events, their event memories differ in kind from human episodic memory. Critically, the suggestion is that human episodic memory essentially has temporal, causal, and teleological content that animals' event memories seem to lack. Published as a pair with Boyle 2022 (item (5) above). Hoerl, C., and T. McCormack. 2017. “Animal Minds in Time: The Question of Episodic Memory.” In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Animal Minds, edited by K. Andrews and J. Beck, 56–64. Routledge. This paper uses subtle philosophical distinctions to interpret the empirical evidence about animals' memories in a novel way, and is accessible to newcomers while introducing complex, provocative ideas. It proposes that the key issue in the debate is (or should be) how animals think about time. The idea is that episodic memory requires quite sophisticated temporal and counterfactual reasoning skills, which the authors are sceptical animals possess. Mahr, J. B., and B. Fischer. 2023. “Internally Triggered Experiences of Hedonic Valence in Nonhuman Animals: Cognitive and Welfare Considerations.” Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science 18, no. 3: 688–701. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221120425. This paper discusses the ethical significance of episodic memory. Mahr and Fischer argue that if animals can ‘relive’ positive or negative experiences, this might act as a ‘welfare multiplier’, such that those experiences count for more in assessing their overall welfare: a painful experience might harm an animal more if they can subsequently remember it. They also provide an accessible overview of the empirical phenomenon of sharp wave ripples, arguing that these suggest rats relive experiences in a relevant sense. Likely to stimulate further discussion of how episodic memory in animals might be ethically significant, and would pair well with Mendl and Paul 2008 (item (9) below). Both papers would also suit an ethics-focused course discussing hedonist theories of welfare, or utilitarian approaches to animal ethics. Mendl, M., and E. S. Paul. 2008. “Do Animals Live in the Present?: Current Evidence and Implications for Welfare.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 113, no. 4: 357–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2008.01.013. This paper by two prominent animal welfare scientists provides an accessible review of empirical evidence concerning whether animals have various aspects of episodic memory and future-directed imagination, along with a philosophically rich discussion of the implications for animal welfare. Engages with some of the same ideas as Mahr & Fischer 2023 (item (8) above), but in a rather different way, and introduces further ways in which episodic memory might be relevant to welfare, such as via implications for the animal's self through time or the possibility of PTSD. Schwartz, A. 2020. “Simulationism and the Function(s) of Episodic Memory.” Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11, no. 2: 487–505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-020-00461-1. This paper engages with the related debate on episodic memory's function, drawing connections to debates about the nature and epistemic status of memory and about how to understand biological functions in the mind. It reconstructs and critically assesses the argument for simulationism, according to which episodic memory's function is to support the imaginative construction of future or counterfactual scenarios—a view associated with the claim that episodic memory is merely a kind of imagination. Against this, the paper proposes a pluralist view, on which episodic memory may have multiple functions. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/memory/ Encyclopaedia entry providing an overview of philosophy of memory, touching on issues such as kinds of memories in humans, memory's relationship to the self and imagination and the epistemology of memory. Useful for setting the topic of animal memory in the broader context of the philosophy of memory. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cognition-animal/ Encyclopaedia entry providing an overview of animal cognition, discussing methodology in comparative psychology and the relevance of topics in animal cognition to philosophical questions about other minds, thought, communication, ethics and so on. Useful for setting issues of animal memory in the broader context of the philosophy of animal minds. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comparative-cognition/ Encyclopaedia entry providing a more detailed overview of methodological approaches in comparative cognition and methodological challenges faced in the field. Useful for setting issues of the study of animal memory in the broader context of the philosophy of the sciences of animal minds. https://thememorypalacephil.substack.com/ A blog on the philosophy of memory, featuring short accessible articles by experts in the field on a range of topics. https://www.phomo.org/teaching-repository A selection of online resources and sample syllabi related to the philosophy of memory. https://manyminds.libsyn.com/ Podcast with interviews with discussions with philosophers and scientists, typically focusing on topics about animal minds. Many episodes touch on memory in animals, but see especially the episode ‘Social memory in our closest cousins’, an interview with the authors of a study cited at the opening of the Philosophy Compass piece. Week I: Introduction to Episodic Memory in Animals What is episodic memory? Why is there a question about whether animals have it? Boyle, A., & Brown, S. A. B. (2025) Episodic memory in animals. Philosophy Compass, 20(5), e70037. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.70037. Tulving, E. 2005. “Episodic Memory and Autonoesis: Uniquely Human?” In The Missing Link in Cognition. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161564.003.0001. Extra Reading: Davies, J. R., & Clayton, N. (2024). Is episodic-like memory like episodic memory. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0397. Week 2: The Problem of Functional Variation What are functions? What are the functions of episodic memory, and how might they vary across species? What can these debates tell us about the role episodic memory plays in our own minds and lives? Boyle, A., and S. A. B. Brown. 2024. “Why Might Animals Remember? A Functional Framework for Episodic Memory Research in Comparative Psychology.” Learning & Behaviour 53, no. 1: 14–30. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-024-00645-0. Brown, S. A. B. 2024. “Episodic Memory and Unrestricted Learning.” Philosophy of Science 91, no. 1: 90–110. https://doi.org/10.1017/psa.2023.16. Extra Reading: Schwartz, A. 2020. “Simulationism and the Function(s) of Episodic Memory.” Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11, no. 2: 487–505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-020-00461-1. Week 3: The Problem of Interspecific Variation What does it take for memory capacities in different species to be ‘the same kind’ of memory? Which differences between human and animal memory undermine ascriptions of episodic memory to animals, and which reflect ordinary variation between species? Boyle, A. 2022. “Episodic Memory in Animals: Optimism, Kind Scepticism and Pluralism.” In Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory. Routledge. Keven, N. 2022. “What Does it Take to Remember Episodically?” In Current Controversies in Philosophy of Memory, 206–222. Taylor and Francis. http://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/bitstream/handle/11693/112037/What_does_it_take_to_remember_episodically.pdf?sequence=1. Extra Reading: Boyle, A. 2024. “Disagreement & Classification in Comparative Cognitive Science.” Noûs 58, no. 3: 825–847. https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.12480. Week 4: The Problem of Alternatives If animals don't have episodic memory, what kind(s) of memory might they have instead? Should we prefer these alternative hypotheses? Gentry H, Buckner C. Transitional gradation and the distinction between episodic and semantic memory. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024 Nov 4; 379(1913):20230407. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0407. Fitzpatrick, S. 2008. “Doing Away With Morgan's Canon.” Mind & Language 23, no. 2: 224–246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2007.00338.x. Week 5: The Ethical Significance of Episodic Memory Does it matter ethically whether animals have episodic memory? If so, how? Mahr, J. B., and B. Fischer. 2023. “Internally Triggered Experiences of Hedonic Valence in Nonhuman Animals: Cognitive and Welfare Considerations.” Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science 18, no. 3: 688–701. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221120425. Mendl, M., and E. S. Paul. 2008. “Do Animals Live in the Present?: Current Evidence and Implications for Welfare.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 113, no. 4: 357–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2008.01.013. Why does it matter whether animals have episodic memory? Which lines of evidence for or against episodic memory in animals are most compelling, and why? What does this tell us about the study of other minds in general? What does it take for an animal to ‘count’ as having episodic memory? What kinds of considerations might help us to answer a question like this? What factors might have driven the evolution of episodic memory? What is the relevance of thinking about evolution to our understanding of the mind today? What can thinking about episodic memory in animals teach us about the evolution of the mind—and how we can (or cannot) study it—more generally? Step 1: Individual reflection (2 min): Call to mind the most memorable meal you ever ate—it might be memorable because of the food, or because of what happened! What would you lose if you could no longer access memories like this? Step 2: discussion in pairs/small groups: share your memory and thoughts about it with your group. How do their answers compare to yours? Did their answers reflect differences in the memory they happened to focus on, and if so what can we learn from this? Step 3: An opportunity to share with the larger group any insights arising from Step 2. Step 4: discussion in pairs/small groups: What—if anything—do your ideas about the personal importance of episodic memory suggest about (a) the evolution of episodic memory or (b) how to detect episodic memory in animals? This work was supported by the UK Research and Innovation (MR/W00741X/1) (A.B.) and HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council (851145) (S.A.B.B.).