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Cats Rival Dogs In Many Tests of 'Social Intelligence'

Saturday May 11, 2019. 03:30 AM , from Slashdot
sciencehabit writes: Scientists have been studying the social intelligence of dogs -- how they evolved to communicate and bond with us -- for more than two decades, but they've largely ignored cats. That has started to change. In the past five years, a number of laboratories exploring feline social cognition have popped up around the globe, revealing that cats rival dogs in many tests of social smarts. But cats are hard to work with -- they freak out in the laboratory and often don't cooperate even when researchers study them in their homes -- causing some to wonder whether studies of the feline mind will take off the same way they have for dogs. Oregon State University devised an 'attachment test' where an owner and his/her cat will go into a room for a moment, and then the owner will leave. The cat will typically tend to freak out, meow a lot, and walk around in circles until the owner comes back. When the owner comes back and sits down on the ground, often the cat will come back to the owner.

What's particularly interesting about this study is that the cat, after welcoming its owner and recognizing their presence, will then leave and start exploring the room. While the average person would assume that the cat doesn't care about their owner since they appear to just want to explore, it's the opposite that's true. The cat has such a close bond with their owner that they feel they're able to go explore now that their owner is there with them.

They also do a similar test with a fan that has streamers attached to it. With the fan on making loud noise and freaking out the cat, the owner is instructed to 'make nice' with the fan. After making sweet talk and touching the fan, some cats will start to calm down, approach the fan, and even lay down in front of it. The cats appear to pick up the emotional cues from their owners and learn that the fan is not something that they should be afraid of.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.
rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/711bWerUKaE/cats-rival-dogs-in-many-tests-of-social-intelli...
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