Tigger
2021-11-16 04:44:43 UTC
<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/your-cat-knows-where-you-are-even-when-they-cant-see-you-180979059/>
New research suggests your cat is likely using sounds to keep track of where
you are, even when you’re out of sight. Domestic cats create “mental maps”
that track where their owner is located based on the direction of certain
sounds, an ability that was previously unknown in felines, according to new
research published this week in the journal PLOS One.
Study author Saho Takagi, a doctoral student at Kyoto University, says she
has
long been interested in cats' hearing and their ability to move their ears in
different directions.
"I saw a cat with only one of its ears tilted back, listening to the sound
behind
it, and felt that cats must be thinking about many things from the sound,"
Takagi says in an email to CNN’s Sherry Liang. "This time, I investigated
whether
they map their owner's position spatially from sounds."
The team conducted a series of experiments to find out if cats actively track
their owners using cues like sound. They played recordings of human voices
calling a cat’s name from different locations, in what they called
“teleportation-like scenarios.” For example, a nearby speaker would announce
“Fluffy!”, suggesting to the kitty that the owner was close, and then a
speaker
in a different room would call the same name again. The felines appeared
surprised by the voice coming from an unexpected location, suggesting that
domesticated cats spatially map their human companions using audio cues,
even when they’re in the next room, reports Hannah Osborne for Newsweek.
"These results suggest that cats hold a mental representation of the unseen
owner and map their owner's location from the owner's voice, showing
evidence of socio-spatial cognition,” the researchers write in the paper.
Earlier
studies have shown that cats can tell familiar and unfamiliar human voices
apart, and locate hidden objects. Therefore, "it seems plausible that cats
should
be able to mentally map others' locations based on vocalizations,” they
explain.
...
New research suggests your cat is likely using sounds to keep track of where
you are, even when you’re out of sight. Domestic cats create “mental maps”
that track where their owner is located based on the direction of certain
sounds, an ability that was previously unknown in felines, according to new
research published this week in the journal PLOS One.
Study author Saho Takagi, a doctoral student at Kyoto University, says she
has
long been interested in cats' hearing and their ability to move their ears in
different directions.
"I saw a cat with only one of its ears tilted back, listening to the sound
behind
it, and felt that cats must be thinking about many things from the sound,"
Takagi says in an email to CNN’s Sherry Liang. "This time, I investigated
whether
they map their owner's position spatially from sounds."
The team conducted a series of experiments to find out if cats actively track
their owners using cues like sound. They played recordings of human voices
calling a cat’s name from different locations, in what they called
“teleportation-like scenarios.” For example, a nearby speaker would announce
“Fluffy!”, suggesting to the kitty that the owner was close, and then a
speaker
in a different room would call the same name again. The felines appeared
surprised by the voice coming from an unexpected location, suggesting that
domesticated cats spatially map their human companions using audio cues,
even when they’re in the next room, reports Hannah Osborne for Newsweek.
"These results suggest that cats hold a mental representation of the unseen
owner and map their owner's location from the owner's voice, showing
evidence of socio-spatial cognition,” the researchers write in the paper.
Earlier
studies have shown that cats can tell familiar and unfamiliar human voices
apart, and locate hidden objects. Therefore, "it seems plausible that cats
should
be able to mentally map others' locations based on vocalizations,” they
explain.
...