Cats use physics to get what they want, scientists have found
Cats have a wily reputation, but their cunning could just be basic deductive reasoning.
Scientists from Kyoto University in Japan found that cats can grasp the concept of gravity and cause and effect. The sounds they hear help them predict what they can expect to see next, which may play a role in how the animals hunt. Their work was published in the journal Animal Cognition.
“Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects,” Saho Takagi, a graduate student studying psychology at Kyoto University and lead author of the paper, said in a press release.
For their experiment, Takagi and her colleagues gathered 30 domestic cats, some from cat cafes and some household pets. They shook a box in front of individual cats, which either made a rattling sound or didn’t. Then, the researchers flipped the box over, either to reveal something inside or an empty box.
Cats have a wily reputation, but their cunning could just be basic deductive reasoning.
Scientists from Kyoto University in Japan found that cats can grasp the concept of gravity and cause and effect. The sounds they hear help them predict what they can expect to see next, which may play a role in how the animals hunt. Their work was published in the journal Animal Cognition.
“Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects,” Saho Takagi, a graduate student studying psychology at Kyoto University and lead author of the paper, said in a press release.
For their experiment, Takagi and her colleagues gathered 30 domestic cats, some from cat cafes and some household pets. They shook a box in front of individual cats, which either made a rattling sound or didn’t. Then, the researchers flipped the box over, either to reveal something inside or an empty box.
http://qz.com/728745/cats-use-physics-t ... ave-found/
Cats have a wily reputation, but their cunning could just be basic deductive reasoning.
Scientists from Kyoto University in Japan found that cats can grasp the concept of gravity and cause and effect. The sounds they hear help them predict what they can expect to see next, which may play a role in how the animals hunt. Their work was published in the journal Animal Cognition.
“Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects,” Saho Takagi, a graduate student studying psychology at Kyoto University and lead author of the paper, said in a press release.
For their experiment, Takagi and her colleagues gathered 30 domestic cats, some from cat cafes and some household pets. They shook a box in front of individual cats, which either made a rattling sound or didn’t. Then, the researchers flipped the box over, either to reveal something inside or an empty box.
Cats have a wily reputation, but their cunning could just be basic deductive reasoning.
Scientists from Kyoto University in Japan found that cats can grasp the concept of gravity and cause and effect. The sounds they hear help them predict what they can expect to see next, which may play a role in how the animals hunt. Their work was published in the journal Animal Cognition.
“Cats use a causal-logical understanding of noise or sounds to predict the appearance of invisible objects,” Saho Takagi, a graduate student studying psychology at Kyoto University and lead author of the paper, said in a press release.
For their experiment, Takagi and her colleagues gathered 30 domestic cats, some from cat cafes and some household pets. They shook a box in front of individual cats, which either made a rattling sound or didn’t. Then, the researchers flipped the box over, either to reveal something inside or an empty box.
http://qz.com/728745/cats-use-physics-t ... ave-found/