From Working Memory to Long-Term Memory

The animal mind is not so dissimilar to our own in terms of memory processing and storage as one might assume. Neural pathways are strengthened when humans practice using their working memory and it can be speculated that this is similar in animals as well. Stronger neural pathways allows our brain to become more efficient by transferring the working memory tasks, if done often enough, into our long-term memory to be retrieved easier later on. The importance of working memory in humans and animals gives us the power to streamline different tasks such as speech in humans or a fine motor task in chimpanzees or other animals

.Working memory may be demonstrated well by allowing the chimpanzee in the video linked to try to reach the peanut in more than a single trial. This may give us some insight as to whether or not the neural pathways are being strengthened through practice and are being transferred to long-term memory over time. If this was the case, would this present the idea that through working memory an animal can learn to complete almost any simple task quickly after only a few trials?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPz6uvIbWZE

References:

 - Coppola, V. J., Hough, G., & Bingman, V. P. (2014). Age-related spatial working memory deficits in homing pigeons ( columba livia). Behavioral Neuroscience, 128(6), 666-675. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bne0000013

 - https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/animals/do-animals-have-working-memory.html