When cats saw the obstacle and were distracted before they had a chance to step over it with their forelegs, they didn’t remember the obstacle, indicating their visual memory is not so great. “We’ve found that the long-lasting memory for guiding hind legs over an obstacle requires stepping of the forelegs over the obstacle,” researcher Keir Pearson of the University of Alberta in Canada said. “The main surprise was how short lasting the visual memory on its own was—just a few seconds when animals were stopped before their forelegs stepped over the obstacle.” Source: MentalFloss