Posted on May 10, 2021
Cats Take 'If I Fits I Sits' Seriously, Even If The Space Is Just An Illusion
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If you've spent any time around cats, you've probably noticed that they love to curl up in small, cozy boxes. What you may not know is that they'll also go sit inside the two-dimensional outline of a square box on the floor. What's more, a new study has found that pet cats will also spontaneously sit inside an optical illusion that merely looks like a square.
Believed to be the first of its kind, the study enlisted volunteers to observe cats in their homes, a strategy to avoid what has historically been the main impediment to studying feline cognition in the lab — cats' notoriously uncooperative nature.
"Cats are funny, cats are weird and quirky, and we love them for it. And that makes them hard to study in some ways, because we are often so reliant on training paradigms and cats aren't very motivated to be trained," says Gabriella Smith, an animal behavior researcher who currently works with the Alex Foundation, an avian cognition lab, and is the lead researcher on the study.
Believed to be the first of its kind, the study enlisted volunteers to observe cats in their homes, a strategy to avoid what has historically been the main impediment to studying feline cognition in the lab — cats' notoriously uncooperative nature.
"Cats are funny, cats are weird and quirky, and we love them for it. And that makes them hard to study in some ways, because we are often so reliant on training paradigms and cats aren't very motivated to be trained," says Gabriella Smith, an animal behavior researcher who currently works with the Alex Foundation, an avian cognition lab, and is the lead researcher on the study.
Cats Take 'If I Fits I Sits' Seriously, Even If The Space Is Just An Illusion
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Posted 3 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
"This latest study, in contrast, has the advantage of testing untrained cats in a more natural setting, although it generated less data because so many participants dropped out. And Blake notes that because cats are so short and close to the ground, they might have seen the shapes on the floor from an angle that made the cats less likely to perceive the illusion of the square in the same way that much taller people do.
Still, he says, the researchers were aware of the limitations of what they found, and he says this study cleverly exploited pet cats' natural desire to occupy an enclosed space.
"I really do tip my hat to these people. I respect and admire what they did," says Blake, adding that he does wonder, though, what went through the felines' minds when they saw strange marks taped to the floor and their owners videotaping them while wearing dark eyeglasses."
"This latest study, in contrast, has the advantage of testing untrained cats in a more natural setting, although it generated less data because so many participants dropped out. And Blake notes that because cats are so short and close to the ground, they might have seen the shapes on the floor from an angle that made the cats less likely to perceive the illusion of the square in the same way that much taller people do.
Still, he says, the researchers were aware of the limitations of what they found, and he says this study cleverly exploited pet cats' natural desire to occupy an enclosed space.
"I really do tip my hat to these people. I respect and admire what they did," says Blake, adding that he does wonder, though, what went through the felines' minds when they saw strange marks taped to the floor and their owners videotaping them while wearing dark eyeglasses."
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