Classification of domestic cat (Felis catus) vocalizations by naive and experienced human listeners.

Abstract

To test for possible functional referentiality in a common domestic cat (Felis catus) vocalization, the authors conducted 2 experiments to examine whether human participants could classify meow sounds recorded from 12 different cats in 5 behavioral contexts. In Experiment 1, participants heard singlecalls, whereas in Experiment 2, bouts of calls were presented. In both cases, classification accuracy was significantly above chance, but modestly so. Accuracy for bouts exceeded that for single calls. Overall, participants performed better in classifying individual calls if they had lived with, interacted with, and had a general affinity for cats. These results provide little evidence of referentiality suggesting instead that meows are nonspecific, somewhat negatively toned stimuli that attract attention from humans. With experience, human listeners can become more proficient at inferring positive-affect states from cat meows.

Human cerebral response to animal affective vocalizations

“…Second, domestic cats directly depend on humans for their survival, at least to a greater extent than the macaque colonies raised in semi-captivity on the Island of Cayo Santiago where the recordings were made. Thus, an effective transmission of affective valence in their vocalizations to humans would seem highly advantageous; the meows would be particularly suited to this purpose since they are mostly produced in a cat-to-human contexts ( Nicastro & Owren 2003). In their study of classification of cat meows by humans in five different call production contexts (food related, agonistic, affiliative, obstacle or distress), Nicastro & Owren (2003) observed a classification accuracy that was significantly above chance, although modestly so.…”

“…The cat vocalizations consisted of 'meows' or 'miaows'. Calls recorded in food-related and affiliative contexts were assigned to the positive affect category, whereas agonistic and distress contexts were assigned to the negative category ( Nicastro & Owren 2003). The rhesus monkey calls included girneys, harmonic arches and a warble, included in the positive category, and screams and gekkers, included in the negative category.…”

Development and application of CatFACS: Are human cat adopters influenced by cat facial expressions?

“…Domestic cats are more vocal when compared to other carnivores (Peters and Wozencraft, 1989;Yeon et al, 2011), and their meows are mostly directed at humans and only infrequently produced for conspecifics (Bradshaw and Cameron-Beaumont, 2000;Yeon et al, 2011). Humans are able to accurately classify meow sounds (Nicastro and Owren, 2003) and attribute meaning and emotional context to these calls (Nicastro, 2002;Belin et al, 2008). McComb et al (2009) proposed that specific types of purrs (with embedded meow sounds) exploit human sensory biases by mimicking human infant cries in order to solicit enhanced levels of attention and care.…”

Barking in domestic dogs: context specificity and individual identification

“…Calls should vary with the demands of the situation, which in turn should influence motivational state. For instance, California ground squirrels, Spermophilus beecheyi, produce alarm calls that vary based on urgency (Owings & Hennessy 1984), vervet monkeys, Cercophithecus aethiops, produce alarm calls that elicit different escape patterns (Seyfarth et al, 1980), and domestic cats produce meows that vary in their emotional effect on humans, and that also may vary acoustically based on the intensity of a cat's need to influence humans to respond (Nicastro & Owren 2003). Furthermore, in cases where one variable call type is used in many different contexts, closer evaluation frequently reveals that the call can be divided into subtypes based on a combination of acoustic parameters (Owings & Leger 1980;Gouzoules & Gouzoules 1989;Slobodchikoff et al 1991;Fischer et al 1995Fischer et al , 2001Ackers & Slobodchikoff 1999).…”

“…In the case of nondomesticated animals, variation in contextual use of a single vocalization has encouraged many studies. Researchers have examined this variation in a number of species, including Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus (Fischer et al 1995;Fischer 1998), gorillas, Gorilla gorilla (Seyfarth et al 1994), chacma baboons, Papio cynocephalus ursinus (Fischer et al 2001), pigtailed macaques, Macaca nemestrina (Gouzoules & Gouzoules 1989), sciurid rodents such as squirrels and prairie dogs (Owings & Hennessy 1984) and domesticated cats, Felis catus (Nicastro & Owren 2003). Owings & Hennessy (1984) also point out that, while many early studies have stressed call similarity, variability in both temporal and structural aspects of a call is important.…”