Cats show an unexpected pattern of response to human ostensive cues in a series of A-not-B error tests

Abstract

It is an intriguing question whether cats' social understanding capacity, including the sensitivity to ostensive signals (resulting in fast preferential learning of behavioural choices demonstrated by humans), would be comparable to that in dogs. In a series of A-not-B error tests, we investigated whether the ostensive or non-ostensive manner of human communication and the familiarity of the human demonstrator would affect the search error pattern in companion cats. Cats' performance showed an almost completely different distribution of perseverative erring than earlier was shown in dogs and human infants. Cats demonstrated perseverative errors both during ostensive and non-ostensive cueing by the owner and also during non-ostensive cueing by the experimenter. However, unlike prior studies with dogs, they avoided perseverative errors during the experimenter ostensive cueing condition. We assume that the reliance on human ostensive signals may serve different purpose in companion dogs and cats-meanwhile in dogs, human ostension could support fast rule learning, in cats, it may have only a circumstantial attention-eliciting effect. Our results highlight the need of conducting further throughout experiments on the social cognition of cats, based on their own right beside the traditional cat-dog comparative approach.

Pet-directed speech improves horses’ attention toward humans

“…IDS is known to communicate parents’ intentions, and in infants, it is thought to work as an ostensive cue, alerting the child that communication is intended for them 16 . Dogs and cats have been shown to respond to ostensive cues as well 40 – 42 . Therefore, it is possible that horses could be sensitive to ostensive cues and that PDS could play this role.…”

Age‐related cognitive impairments in domestic cats naturally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus

“…While many studies have assessed cognitive impairment in dogs, 11,52–54 far fewer have measured aspects of cognition in domestic cats 15 . Those that have used tasks originally designed for dogs or other animals, typically puzzle boxes and object‐choice tasks with object‐hiding paradigms 55–57 . However, domestic cats often struggle with cognitive tasks, particularly those with long testing sessions and repetitive trials 45 .…”

“…15 Those that have used tasks originally designed for dogs or other animals, typically puzzle boxes and object-choice tasks with object-hiding paradigms. [55][56][57] However, domestic cats often struggle with cognitive tasks, particularly those with long testing sessions and repetitive trials. 45 For the lack of a suitable test, evaluating cognitive function in cats has always been limited to laboratories where extensive training can be undertaken.…”

Temperament in Domestic Cats: A Review of Proximate Mechanisms, Methods of Assessment, Its Effects on Human—Cat Relationships, and One Welfare

“…Even fewer studies have been conducted on cat cognition, which is an area that has recently become of increasing interest amongst researchers [11]. Despite the increasing interest in cats' mental functioning, there are still several unanswered questions [11][12][13]. For example, how does temperament affect their cognitive processes?…”