Cats: How good Is Their Memory

Kayla, Grade 4

I did an investigation on cats’ memories. I chose that topic because I was interested in cats so I did an investigation on cats’ memory.

The question I wanted to know was how the cats’ memory improved. I thought of that question by reading a book one day on cats. I read an experiment and wondered how my cat would react with that experiment.

To find more information on cats’ memories I went to the library and on the internet but I found nothing. That is why I did my experiment to learn more about my cat.

To answer my question I did and experiment. The first step was to place a cat treat into a room and showed my cat where it was. Then I took my cat out of the room, and waited for 1 minute. After that, I let the cat back into the room and I used a stopwatch to time how long it took her to find the treat. Then I placed another treat in the same hiding spot and then I took her in another room and waited 5 minutes before I let her back in. I timed and recorded the information. I repeated the same thing but when I put the cat in another room I waited 15 minutes. I timed and recorded, then I repeated the same procedure in several different hiding spots.

From this experiment I learned that my cat’s memory improves by repeating a test over and over again.

I wanted to do something else about memory but I did not have time so maybe I can do it next year. I wanted to do the same thing but also with a dog to see which animals’ memories improved the most.