Researchers at Ruhr University in Germany have found that the memory processes of birds resemble human working memory. The study results were published in the journal Communications Biology. [Citation: Communications Biology]
Jackdaws and other members of the corvid family exhibit working memory challenges similar to those seen in humans: their memories tend to become less precise and more biased as time passes.
Working memory is the system that handles the integration and processing of information across short-term and long-term stores. It includes auditory and spatial components, plus an episodic buffer that links these memory types. This capacity can hold things like passwords, numbers, or words for a short period. Yet such memories are fleeting, and the more items people try to retain, the greater the risk of forgetting details or mixing up items. The researchers’ work highlights that birds face a comparable cognitive load when managing multiple pieces of information over brief intervals. [Citation: Communications Biology]
In a series of tests, two jackdaws were asked to remember colors. To begin, each bird pressed a white button. They were then shown a target color and later presented with a grid containing 64 color options. The birds had to identify the target after viewing the grid. As the number of potential target colors increased, the birds’ accuracy declined. They often selected colors that were similar in hue to the target rather than the exact color, indicating that their short-term memory was being loaded with more items than it could neatly organize. This pattern led researchers to conclude that the birds experience a measurable strain on their short-term memory when faced with more complex color discrimination tasks. [Citation: Communications Biology]
The study adds to a growing body of work showing that avian cognition shares meaningful parallels with human cognitive processes. It demonstrates that corvids can perform memory-guided tasks, yet their performance is constrained by the same basic limits that govern human working memory, especially when the amount of information to be held increases or the time to recall grows longer.
Background observations from related research suggest that corvids are capable of sophisticated problem-solving, planning, and tool use. The current findings place these abilities within a broader framework of memory performance, underlining that birds deploy short-term memory resources in ways that are functionally comparable to humans, albeit within different anatomical and neural constraints. This convergence in memory behavior across species underscores the importance of considering memory as a conserved cognitive function that supports real-world tasks such as foraging, navigation, and social interaction. [Citation: Communications Biology]
In discussing the implications, the researchers note that understanding how non-human animals manage memory can shed light on the general principles of cognition. The results also invite further inquiry into how various ecological demands influence memory capacity in birds, and how these processes compare with memory systems in other animals, including primates. By exploring these parallels, science can build a more complete picture of memory architecture across the animal kingdom, with potential applications in fields ranging from robotics to education. [Citation: Communications Biology]
Some observers have pointed to environmental factors that may influence memory performance in birds, such as enrichment, stress, and day-night cycles. While this study focused on controlled tasks that isolate memory processes, broader investigations will be needed to determine how natural settings affect working memory in wild corvid populations. Still, the core finding stands: birds like jackdaws show working memory traits that mirror human limits, and these traits become more pronounced as cognitive load grows. [Citation: Communications Biology]