Tarantula Memory

[Lost In Space]

Do Tarantulas have good memory? It seems my T handles well with me but can't say the same when it comes to other people. They are calm when handling the T, like me but it tends to scare her and cause her to run. Is it because I play with her frequently so she has grown rather a tolerance or she feels safe? or is that why people don't handle their T's often because they have no idea what is going on.

 

[Projecht13]

T's dont learn in the conventional way you think of how dogs and cats learn. They do not get used to being held, and I'm pretty sure they cant be taught anything like play time. The fact that she is chill with you but no one else is hard to pinpoint really.

 

[aLDoDarK]

hey, I also curious about this, thanks for asking, will waiting for an opinion from the expert :laugh: but I guess that one thing that make her calm in your hand is that you already used to hold her and not with other people ( maybe they never touch Ts before and their hand tends to be shaking and make the Ts scared ) not sure about this. but that's just what I thought

 

[tpduckwa]

i think i remember reading that Ts have basically a 24 hour memory. anyone else heard anything similar?

 

[newspidermom]

I don't know about memory, but I think it's more familiararity....which is kinda related to memory I guess. I would think they might become familiar with your touch and even maybe whatever vibrations that they detect from you personally that are different from someone else. Kind of like how a dog knows the sound of their owners car pulling in the driveway over any other. Although that's a sound based example it might work in a similar way. Almost anytime you rehouse a T into a new enclosure they pace, climb and explore. They eventually settle down once they become familiar with their surroundings. I think it works the same way. If you talk while holding it it may also pick up on the specific vibrations from your voice over someone elses. I know this seems like alot of technical jargan that I'm pulling out my a##, but it almost makes sense. I won't be upset if anyone disagrees....lol

 

[jayefbe]

Tarantulas react to external stimuli based on an instinctual response. There is no conscious 'thought' or 'memory' involved. They *might* become more habituated with unfamiliar stimuli over time (ie. they get used to the way human skin feels) but that is not something I've experience directly. If that is the case, it is still not a case of 'memory', but a familiarity with a certain stimulus eventually eliciting a different response.

 

[Tmobo]

Just throwing this out there but maybe your t knows your smell and it differs from everyone else? Maybe it recognizes that and feels more "comfortable" with your smell as to others.

 

[Rob1985]

Just throwing this out there but maybe your t knows your smell and it differs from everyone else? Maybe it recognizes that and feels more "comfortable" with your smell as to others.

Tarantulas don't have a "nose". Everything they do is based upon instinctual reaction, they react to movement via vibrations. Which is why they might perceive movements in or around them as prey and lunge at your thongs one time and the next time they don't.

They're simple prehistoric creatures. Just enjoy them for what they are.

 

[Formerphobe]

Just throwing this out there but maybe your t knows your smell and it differs from everyone else? Maybe it recognizes that and feels more "comfortable" with your smell as to others.

Tarantulas don't have a "nose". Everything they do is based upon instinctual reaction, they react to movement via vibrations. Which is why they might perceive movements in or around them as prey and lunge at your thongs one time and the next time they don't.

I don't know if it's smell so much as taste, which are related. Since they also 'taste' with their feet, it feasibly could be something as simple as the bath soap/cologne/last meal/last things handled, etc that the other person(s) use or touch. I've noticed with my own spiders that if I have been mixing substrate with my hands and a large portion of my human smell/taste is masked by 'earth', some will readily climb out onto my hand when I am doing tank maintenance. Even though I use unscented soap and wear no colognes or perfumes, the spiders are more apt to avoid me if I have just washed my hands. They are like, "EEEWWW, human skin!"

Even if your friends appear calm to you, the spider will react to stimuli that you are not aware of.

They're simple prehistoric creatures. Just enjoy them for what they are.

+1

(

lunge at your thongs

- LOL! OMG, I hope not!)

 

[Bill S]

There is no conscious 'thought' or 'memory' involved. They *might* become more habituated with unfamiliar stimuli over time ....

Habituation would be a form of memory, no?

 

[BimBim]

Perhaps its that u hold ur t first b4 u hand over to your friend and after the amount of time u hold her she becomes a little streed. When u handle ur t by yourself does she get nervous when u put her back?

 

[jayefbe]

Habituation would be a form of memory, no?

I wouldn't say so, memory is the storage and retrieval of information. Habituation can occur in the absence of memory. An organism can display a habituated response without having any memory of what caused it.

 

[Bill S]

I wouldn't say so, memory is the storage and retrieval of information. Habituation can occur in the absence of memory. An organism can display a habituated response without having any memory of what caused it.

Not sure I'd go along with that. Intellectual memory may be the retrieval of information, but habituation would be remembered behavior patterns. That would assume that the habitual behavior is something other than pure instinct. If an animal develops a habitual non-instinctive behavior it may not comprehend what caused or inspired that habit or that behavior (that takes a pretty advanced mind), but if it continually repeats that behavior it's because at some primitive level the behavior pattern is remembered.

 

[SamuraiSid]

Tarantulas can sence things humans arent really aware of. While your friends may have been calm, Id bet they werent nearly as confident in handling a T as you, and Id say that could potentially make all the difference.

 

[jayefbe]

Not sure I'd go along with that. Intellectual memory may be the retrieval of information, but habituation would be remembered behavior patterns. That would assume that the habitual behavior is something other than pure instinct. If an animal develops a habitual non-instinctive behavior it may not comprehend what caused or inspired that habit or that behavior (that takes a pretty advanced mind), but if it continually repeats that behavior it's because at some primitive level the behavior pattern is remembered.

I actually wouldn't refer to a habituated response as a 'behavior'. I also wouldn't say a habituated response is non-instinctive. A stimulus that will initially cause and certain reaction, may stop generating that response over time. People become habituated to certain drugs and it no longer has the same effect. It's an immediate response (habituated or not) to an external stimulus. In my opinion, that's where the tarantulas level of consciousness begins and ends.

Also, I define memory as the encoding, storing and retrieval of information. Habituation, at it's simplest, is a shift in neuronal response such that a stimulus that would initially activate it no longer will. I wouldn't say that the response is "remembered".

 

[jakykong]

Just to add another perspective to the tarantula memory debate, we DO have at least one example where memory does NOT exist, but habituated behavior does: Artificial neural networks. The prime example is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron - you provide a stimulus and get an output, then use one of the training algorithms, such as backtracing, to encourage the correct response and discourage the incorrect response.

There is no memory in this case, because there is nowhere for memory to form. Yet behavior can be modified by repeatedly (slightly) altering the structure of the network - as certainly happens in the tarantula nervous system as a stimulus occurs.

Having said that, it is clear that spiders are capable of at least *some* memory. While I can't pull up a page number, there is a section about this in "Biology of Spiders" (Foelix). In particular, Wolf spiders will accept an egg sac back for about 20 hours, after which they don't recognize it; and jumping spiders remember where their prey is long enough to move closer then re-aim. I don't know if this applies to mygalomorphs, but it's something to think about.

 

[Malhavoc's]

Just to add another perspective to the tarantula memory debate, we DO have at least one example where memory does NOT exist, but habituated behavior does: Artificial neural networks. The prime example is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron - you provide a stimulus and get an output, then use one of the training algorithms, such as backtracing, to encourage the correct response and discourage the incorrect response.

There is no memory in this case, because there is nowhere for memory to form. Yet behavior can be modified by repeatedly (slightly) altering the structure of the network - as certainly happens in the tarantula nervous system as a stimulus occurs.

Having said that, it is clear that spiders are capable of at least *some* memory. While I can't pull up a page number, there is a section about this in "Biology of Spiders" (Foelix). In particular, Wolf spiders will accept an egg sac back for about 20 hours, after which they don't recognize it; and jumping spiders remember where their prey is long enough to move closer then re-aim. I don't know if this applies to mygalomorphs, but it's something to think about.

both examples are Areneamorph spidrs which are considered to be "further along the evolutionary line" also strangly both have high visual imputs; which tarantulas do not.

I wouldn't put learning past them, however association with one keeper over the next, I would not.

 

[jakykong]

both examples are Areneamorph spidrs which are considered to be "further along the evolutionary line" also strangly both have high visual imputs; which tarantulas do not.

I wouldn't put learning past them, however association with one keeper over the next, I would not.

Agreed, that's why I said I wasn't sure if it applied to mygalomorphs . I was just pointing out that it's not impossible for spiders to have some rudimentary memory, but it's not necessary to exhibit habitual changes.