"Less than seasoned" snake owners

[DVirginiana]

I have had snakes that I have bonded with due to need (namely older ones that need extensive specialized care). While they show an eventual acceptance of more intensive handling and care, it takes much longer than it would in a more intelligent and interactive animal. I become more a tool for achieving comfort and alignment with their husbandry needs than something they look forward to seeing or interacting with.

I have an old blind Thamnophis that is like that. I'm the only one he'll let handle him normally. When he was going blind I had to work with him for months to teach him a new way of eating (simple association of a touch on the neck with food).

I have a question for the persons talking about snake intelligence levels. Out of curiosity, how long do you think a snake can remember things? Such as a rescue -how long can it remember abuse and associate people in general with said abuse? Or being attacked by a rat? How long do you think they remember that rats bite? (That might be more of an instinct thing, but you catch my drift). I know humans have short- and long-term memory banks in their brains. Do snakes have these areas as well? Do they have the ability to learn things, such as door a has a hide behind it that will provide safety and door b does not? Just a sudden spark of curiosity.

There's what people would call memory ie; something happens and you can recall it at will, then there's basic Hebbian principle. That's the more simple kind of 'memory' that is the association between two things that aren't naturally associated ie; you touch a flatworm then give it an electric shock it will eventually begin to run the second you touch it with or without a shock. There were a lot of studies done on a man whose hippocampus was completely ablated called Patient H.M. Really interesting case study if you're interested in memory/intelligence.
I feel like many snakes rely more on the second type of memory... The way mine will act if something goes out of their field of vision, I'm pretty sure they have no object permanence. I think my box turtle is much smarter. She actually will seem to look for certain people if they don't show up, so I think she can actually recall things like who her favorite people are.