Melody matters: An acoustic study of domestic cat meows in six contexts and four mental states

Schötz, Susanne; Weijer, Joost van de; Eklund, Robert

doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.27926

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…We can suppose that while the separation/confinement test was probably a negative experience for all the cats, the human approach test was a positive experience for at least some individuals. A more detailed acoustic analysis of the meows may help disentangle the emotional valence and motivation (e.g., stress, attention-seeking, greeting) underlying them in these tests, since meows emitted during distress have a distinct pattern (low mean fundamental frequency, longer duration; Schötz et al [ 85 ]). Additionally, the cats for which the human approach test was a positive experience may have emitted other vocalizations (e.g., purrs, which Fermo et al [ 86 ] found are exclusively associated with positive experiences).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Individual Differences in Behaviour and for Behavioural Syndromes in Adult Shelter Cats

Martínez-Byer¹,

Urrutia

Szenczi

et al. 2020

Animals

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Consistent inter-individual differences in behaviour have been previously reported in adult shelter cats. In this study, we aimed to assess whether repeatable individual differences in behaviours exhibited by shelter cats in different situations were interrelated, forming behavioural syndromes. We tested 31 adult cats in five different behavioural tests, repeated three times each: a struggle test where an experimenter restrained the cat, a separation/confinement test where the cat spent 2 min in a pet carrier, a mouse test where the cat was presented with a live mouse in a jar, and two tests where the cat reacted to an unfamiliar human who remained either passive or actively approached the cat. Individual differences in behaviour were consistent (repeatable) across repeated trials for each of the tests. We also found associations between some of the behaviours shown in the different tests, several of which appeared to be due to differences in human-oriented behaviours. This study is the first to assess the presence of behavioural syndromes using repeated behavioural tests in different situations common in the daily life of a cat, and which may prove useful in improving the match between prospective owner and cat in shelter adoption programmes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for Individual Differences in Behaviour and for Behavioural Syndromes in Adult Shelter Cats

Martínez-Byer¹,

Urrutia

Szenczi

et al. 2020

Animals

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“…The mew, as the other vocalization is highly modulated by the context in which vocalizations are recorded. A recent study of Schötz et al [26] shows that mew produced in positive context differ in their pitch (higher), duration (shorter), and melody (rising) to mew produced in negative context.…”

Section: Mew (Miaow)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, the intentions of the emitter are expressed in the vocalization. The modification of the acoustic parameters (duration, source, tonality, or fundamental frequency [Fo]) would allow a change of the message that represents the cat's internal conditions during an agonistic encounter or isolation [7,26]. The agonistic sounds are described as aggressive or defensive sounds used to warn, shock, or startle an intruder or attacker [9].…”

Section: Vocalization Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future research on cat vocalizations should focus on discriminating vocalizations by using visual classification of sonograms [46]. This classification would allow understanding if the cat is using the same vocalization with slight variations in different context, this was shown for the mew having two variations in a positive and negative context [26]. But the classification could also show variations significant and consistent enough to classify sounds in different category.…”

Section: Future Research and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Feline vocal communication

et al. 2020

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Cat vocalizes to communicate with another and express their internal states. The vocal repertoire of the cat is wide and up to 21 different vocalizations have been described in the literatures. But it is more than probable that the repertoire contains more types of vocalizations. An ethogram was created in this paper describing the actual known vocalisations of the domestic cat based on an auditory classification. However, the audiogram allows also a visual classification which can increase the accuracy of vocalization differentiation. The classification can be risky as it is sometimes unclear if different types of vocalizations are produced in different environments or if a unique type of vocalization is used with variation in the acoustic parameters. As an example, isolation calls produced by kittens differ depending on the context. The environment has an important impact on the vocal behaviour and thus feral cats and pet cats vocalize differently. Pet cats are thus able to create an efficient communication with humans thanks to the flexibility of vocalisation behaviours. This review allowed us to create a simple model of the cat vocal repertory.

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“…In another cat-inspired sidenote, I would like to point to the real cat language of the Meowsic research project. The Meowsic project looks at melody in human-cat communication and wants to provide an understanding of prosodic features in human speech and cat vocalisations (Schötz, Eklund & van de Wejer, 2016).…”

Section: Lolspeak – a Cat Related Internet Varietymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Purrification of English: Meowlogisms in Online Communities

Podhovnik¹

2018

English Today

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In July 2016, the British media covered the events in Whitehall from the viewpoint of cats. Larry, the Number 10 Downing Street cat, along with his feline colleagues Palmerston, Gladstone and Evie, made the news when the coverage of British politics was transferred to the street fights of competing tomcats Larry, Palmerston, and Gladstone. Headlines included: ‘The feline fight for Downing Street: Larry and Palmerston face-off to be the top cat of No 10’ (Burrows, 2016) in The Daily Mail; ‘Gladstone the cat lands Treasury job’ (‘Gladstone the Cat Lands Treasury Job’, 2016) on the BBC; ‘Gladstone the cat gives Treasury some paws for thought’ (Walker, 2016) in The Guardian; and ‘Cat & Mouser. Foreign Office moggie in stand off with Larry at No10 as bid for power continues’ (Foxton & Pettitt, 2016) in The Sun.

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Melody matters: An acoustic study of domestic cat meows in six contexts and four mental states

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Evidence for Individual Differences in Behaviour and for Behavioural Syndromes in Adult Shelter Cats

Evidence for Individual Differences in Behaviour and for Behavioural Syndromes in Adult Shelter Cats

Feline vocal communication

The Purrification of English: Meowlogisms in Online Communities

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