Research what the cat is thinking about. What does a cat think about and how does it perceive us, people. Do we know anything? Cats basically think that people are just big cats

/research review from Science magazine/

Every day we learn something new about our cats. If we are not too lazy to find out, of course! What do scientists learn about cats?

Marusya and I are pleased to present to you the Russian translation of an article by David Grimm, news editor of Science magazine, who asked the same question and received some interesting facts. The translation is published with the kind permission of the author.

How cats think.
Inside the Mind of the Most Wayward Subject of Study
“We only did one study on cats, and that was enough!” This phrase ended my quest to understand the cat's mind. I've been busy for months writing my book, The Fang Citizen: Our Evolving Relationships with Cats and Dogs, which explores how pets blur the line between animal and human, and was preparing to write a chapter on their intelligence. I knew that a lot had been written about dogs and assumed that there were at least some studies about cats as well. But after several weeks of searching the scientific world for anyone who would study the thinking of cats, all I got was this phrase - said with a laugh over the phone by the Hungarian scientist Adam Miklosi, one of the world's most famous experts on the cognitive abilities of animals.

We live in the golden age of dog research. About a dozen laboratories around the world are studying their intelligence, and over the past decade scientists have published hundreds of papers on the topic. Studies have shown that the dog Fido is able to remember hundreds of words, has abstract thinking and a rudimentary ability to intuitively understand what others are thinking, and all this is the so-called theory of consciousness, which previously related exclusively to humans. Miklósi himself wrote an entire manual about the intelligence of dogs, while he himself is a cat lover.

“Theory of consciousness” or “competent consciousness” (biol.) - the ability to understand the mental state of another individual (editor's note)

The quantity doesn't matter

I knew I was in trouble before I even got through to Miklósi on the phone. After talking to almost every expert on animal cognition I could find (researchers on the minds of dogs, elephants, chimpanzees, etc.), I was referred to someone who might have done research on cats as well. His name is Christian Agrillo, and he works as a comparative psychologist at the University of Padua in Italy. When I visited his website, I thought I was in the wrong place, since his main work was devoted to fish research. But when I talked to him, he confirmed that he had conducted one experiment on cats. Then he laughed. “I assure you, working with fish is much easier than working with cats,” he said. “And this is amazing!”

Agrillo studies something called digital competence. It is essentially the ability to distinguish small quantities from large ones. The test he uses is quite simple. Researchers draw three black dots on a “desired” object (for example, a plate of food or a door leading to friends) and two dots on an “unwanted” object (for example, an empty plate or a door with nothing interesting behind it). And then Agrillo and his colleagues see if the animals, after multiple trials, can learn to distinguish between the two quantities. In addition to fish, his team worked with monkeys and birds, which were willing to interact. But when he tried to work with cats, he couldn’t stand it and gave up.

To reduce the number of variables, Agrillo's team always conducts experiments in its laboratory. But when the owners brought their pets there, most of the cats were worried. Even the brightest showed little or no interest in the test. Agrillo ended up testing only four cats, but even they were very difficult to work with. “Very often they simply did not participate in the experiment or went in the wrong direction,” he told me. “Every day it was actually very difficult to have a successful experience.” But still he managed to get some results. It turned out that unlike fish, which can distinguish two dots from three, cats paid more attention to the size of the dots than to their number. This makes sense if we consider the fact that in wildlife cats are solitary creatures, and when they hunt, they are more interested in the size of the prey. Quantity is simply not that important to them.

Agrillo's work didn't shed any light on the mystery of the cat's mind, but at least it was something. I was hoping Adam Miklosi could give me more information, since he is part of the reason why research into the minds of dogs began. In 1998, he and biologist-anthropologist Brian Hare of Duke University independently demonstrated that dogs can understand directions given by humans. Both labs conducted experiments that demonstrated that when a volunteer pointed to one of two cups containing a treat, the dogs almost always went to the correct cup. This may seem like a simple test, but our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, failed it; They either ignored the volunteer, or randomly chose a cup, and only occasionally did it by accident. right choice. The ability to follow a finger's direction is not just a practiced trick; it shows that dogs most likely have a rudimentary "theory of mind" - the ability to understand what another animal is thinking or, in our case, what a person is trying to show them something. This skill is so important to our species that without it we would have big problems with cognition and interaction with the outside world. This is why so many labs have begun studying the minds of dogs; dogs, in their opinion, can help reveal the secret of the evolution of the human mind.

What about cats? I was surprised to learn that Miklósi also conducted a test that gave directions to cats. And just like Agrillo, he had difficulty getting the cats to cooperate in his laboratory, so he came to our house himself. And even then, most animals were not interested in advancing science. According to the data research work Miklósi, 7 of 26 participants dropped out of the study. But those that did take part behaved just like dogs. It follows that cats may also have a rudimentary theory of consciousness.

But when Miklósi moved on to the next stage of his research, he noticed an intriguing difference between cats and dogs. This time he and his colleagues came up with two problems: a solvable one and an unsolvable one. In the problem being solved, the researchers placed food in a deep bowl and shoved it under a stool. To get food, cats and dogs had to find a bowl and pull it out from under the stool. Both of them did it successfully. Then the scientists again placed the bowl under the stool, but this time they tied it to its legs so that it could not be pulled out. The dogs tried to reach the bowl for a few seconds, but then gave up, looking to their owners for help. The cats rarely looked at their owners and simply continued their attempts to get food.

And before you jump to the conclusion that cats are dumber than dogs because they are not smart enough to realize that this task is impossible, consider this: dogs have existed side by side with humans for 30,000 years, which is 20 more years. 000 years longer compared to cats. Like no other animal on the planet, dogs are tuned to perceive human “radio frequencies” that broadcast our feelings and desires. In fact, we may be the only “radio station” our dogs listen to. The cats behavior is excellent. On the one hand, they can tune in to our wavelength if they want (which is why some of them take the directional test), but they don't follow our every word "on air" like dogs. They switch their “remote” to other stations as well.

And this is ultimately what makes them so difficult to study. Every owner knows that cats are very smart creatures. But for science, their minds may forever remain a “black box.”

But there is still hope. As scientists have begun experimenting with new methods of studying animal intelligence, such as oculography (tracking eye movements - editor's note) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (measuring changes in blood flow caused by brain activity - editor's note), perhaps they It will be possible to find a way to penetrate the cat's mind. For example, Brian Hare is optimistic. Even though he's one of the world's foremost experts on dog cognition, he says he wouldn't be surprised if cats were next in line. “Before 1998, no one even thought dogs were worth paying attention to, and now look how much we've learned from them,” he says. “I believe cats will be our next area of ​​research.”

The cat's mind may be a black box, but it's definitely worth looking into.

It's no secret that a common person, not always realizing this, tends to anthropologize the world, trying to cognize it exclusively in subjective human categories. The cat family is no exception.

We think, for example, that our cats are “noble”, “proud”, “independent”, “graceful”... That is, we endow them with purely human qualities. But who are they really? And, most interestingly, what do cats think about people?...

Scientific tests?.. That's nonsense

In general, a cat’s thinking is a dark forest. Or a magician's black box. The editor of the online magazine “Science”, David Grimm, in one of his articles describes the research of the Italian scientist Christian Agrillo. According to Agrillo, studying the cognitive abilities of fish is even easier than that of cats!

This was manifested in a test of the so-called “digital competence”, during which three dots are drawn on a desired object (for example, a bowl or feeder with food), and two on an undesirable object (an empty bowl). During the experiment, the animal (Agrillo worked, among other things, with monkeys and birds) must learn to make an informed choice.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), the cats failed the test completely. In laboratory conditions, most of the selected cats were very worried and could not participate in the experiment, and the four that behaved more or less loyally reacted very weakly to the proposed playing conditions.

True, in the end it was possible to establish that cats pay more attention to the size of the dots, and not to their number - when hunting, the size of the prey is fundamentally important, and you cannot catch two birds at once. What's the point of counting them?

Are cats really dumber than fish?!

Of course not. Then, the principle of having a mind should not be built solely on the ability to communicate with a person (let us remember here, for example, about hypothetical non-humanoid civilizations for which contact with a person would be impossible in principle). Cat people are not aliens. It’s just that cats still remain wild, closed within their authentic, non-human-oriented behavior.

This is exactly what is written about in the work “Cat Sence” by British biologist John Bradshaw, who spent more than 30 years studying the issue. Cats, compared to dogs, do not live as long with humans (10,000 and 30,000 years, respectively) and most of them (approximately 85%) reproduce freely, without human intervention.

An important fact in this process is that almost all domestic cats are castrated, therefore, reproductive large quantity the offspring again become unsocialized, street cats.

Cats think people are big cats

So what do cats think about people? Bradshaw believes that it is unlikely that the “theory of competent consciousness”, the essence of which is that one species can have an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe mind and worldview of another species, is applicable to cats. That is, cats think that people are big cats. And most importantly, they are non-aggressive, non-hostile.

There can be a lot of speculation and speculation on this matter. For example, cats may think that we are stupid cats because... We don’t try to spread our scent and thereby poorly dominate our territory. Or that we are unfortunate because we don’t have claws or fur. Or that we hunt poorly and eat all sorts of nonsense, like vegetables from the store or fast food boxes.

By the way, an interesting conclusion is that cats that bring a killed rat or bird to the doorstep (into the room, on a blanket or pillow) do not at all want to give a gift to the owner or show their gratitude. Cats think humans are a big cat. And where there is a “big, non-hostile” cat, it is quite possible to hide the prey to eat it later.

Big cat mom

What cats think about people is also suggested by some behavioral features of adults. For example, cats “trample” the owner with their paws, rub against his legs or purr, which is similar to the behavior of a kitten towards its mother. In general, this model of behavior contains such a sweet, innocent cunning that suits both the owner and the four-legged pet.

On the one hand, an adult cat recognizes itself as an adult, on the other hand, it is so convenient to be a little capricious kitten that is taken care of... These, by the way, are obvious parallels with human behavior.

To summarize, we add that the behavior of cats towards humans varies greatly. A kitten that has had contact with humans from the first days will obviously be more adapted for communication than street cat, who was taken into the house as an adult. There are, indeed, real cats and dogs who try to understand their owner to the best of their ability. So, the behavior of a cat and what they think about us largely depends on us.

Hello!

Do you already have a wonderful cat or a favorite charming cat?

And you are wondering if your fluffy gold and about what in general cats think?

Amazing! Today we will fully understand this issue. I will say right away that cats love to think about food and other things that give them pleasure... But cats and cats have many more different thoughts...

It is not for nothing that domestic cats have been considered a symbol of comfort and well-being for a century now: these creatures are so sensitive to their owners and their surroundings that one can simply be amazed at how appropriate and even obligatory they sometimes seem to be in our apartment! A month or two passes, and we understand that the cat has already become a member of the family, something very necessary in our lives, we quickly become attached to it and begin to love it like our own child. There are vibes of some kind of strong magic floating around this small animal, bewitching and tying us to it with the most incredible power.

Coming home from work or school tired, we fall exhausted into a chair and pet our cat, who immediately jumps onto our laps, and we ourselves understand with pleasure: how good it is to return home like this, to our warm, cozy apartment, where you will always be greeted by this beautiful purring creature - and fatigue goes away by itself...
To better understand a cat, what it wants and what it feels, you need to have the skills of a very subtle cat psychologist or seer, because the signals and impulses that this mysterious animal gives are usually so faintly perceptible and veiled that reading them requires considerable observation and almost perfect instinct.

Sometimes, for example, you might think that a cat feels comfortable and completely calm, while she is very anxious and cannot find a place for herself. And vice versa: you can assume that the cat is rebellious and scared to death, although in fact she was attacked by cheerful enthusiasm, and she is simply inviting you to play with her!

How can you learn to read the feelings and desires of your beloved pet? In this article we will look at several interesting behavioral situations, the understanding of which will undoubtedly help you establish better contact with your cat and even more sensitively understand the thoughts and feelings of these beautiful animals.
First of all, you will have to immediately come to terms with the idea that you can learn to absolutely accurately understand the feelings of cats: this is such a lengthy and ambiguous science that there is very little chance left. However, cats are living beings and live with us, and therefore we see them and can try to read their thoughts and desires, for example, from the movements of the body and tail, from the position of the ears, from the size of the pupils, from the sounds that the cat makes . The task is complex, but still very interesting and worth closer consideration. So let's get started...

Stage No. 1. Learning to understand BY THE TAIL, what do cats think about.

So, for example, if a cat wants your warmth and attention or just wants to eat, its tail curls like a question mark,

and if the cat feels relaxed, then the tail already takes a horizontal position and its very tip looks down.

When the tail rises sharply and its bend becomes especially noticeable, this usually means that the cat is aggressive and wants to show you to stay away.

If the tip of the tail looks vertically upward, it means the cat is alarmed by something and feels internal discomfort.

By the movements of the tail, you can also read the emotions that the animal is experiencing at one time or another. For example, if a cat is very irritated, it sharply jerks the tip of its tail from side to side. She behaves in a similar way when she is noticeably excited or preparing to jump after the mouse.

When a cat attacks, its tail becomes as hard as a branch, and if it also swings it around, then this movement reveals stress in it, showing that it is scared or simply feels danger.

If a cat wants to be alone, then it simply raises its tail up, hides its gaze and hastily leaves the room.

Stage No. 2. Learning to understand by the muzzle, what do cats think about.

Of course, a cat's face does not have very clear facial expressions, such as, for example, a dog's face, however, even here you can try to read something.

If a cat is very aggressive, then she looks straight ahead, her pupils narrow and become vertical, her whiskers stick out rigidly, her ears are pressed tightly to her head.

If she is even ready to rush at the enemy, then a wide-open mouth with exposed teeth and gums is added to the above-described signs.

When a cat is scared and wants to obey, its pupils dilate. At the moment when she is serene and feels completely calm, her eyes close, and the inner eyelid becomes noticeable from the edges of her eyes. Pay attention to the movement of the ears: when they are tense and the cat presses them to the sides - this is a warning, if back - internal fear, if it carelessly moves them left and right, it means it is simply exploring something or has seen something very curious.

Stage No. 3. Learning to understand by the movement of the torso, what do cats think about.

Also observe the cat’s body and the movements it makes with it, for these signs can be very eloquent. If, for example, a cat bends into an arc and stands on straight legs, then in this way she wants to give a signal to the enemy to get out of the way. If she is thinking only about defense and there is more fear than aggression in her, then the cat simply lies on her back or side, and, spreading her claws, presses her paws to her chest or extends them to their full length.

When a cat is especially peaceful and wants your attention, then, arching and stiffening its tail, it begins to persistently rub against your legs, meowing or purring. If your pet behaves in this way, then do not be lazy to respond with mutual affection: cats love such an owner very much and quickly become attached to him, loving him devotedly and distinguishing him from all other household members, you just need to have time to be the first in her hierarchy of values.

Stage No. 4. LEARNING TO UNDERSTAND BY MEOWING AND PURSING, what do cats think about.

To enhance signals, cats often resort to sounds. Meowing is by far the most common sound signal.

However, a cat almost always produces such a range of emotions with the help of meowing that it is difficult to talk about the differentiated semantic load of this sound signal. There may be a request, a demand, indignation, or a plea... Moreover, the intonation may practically not change.

Another thing is purring! With this pleasant sound for any ear, the cat most often expresses its sympathy for you; at such moments it feels especially calm and enjoys your company.

Cats also often purr during hygiene procedures, combing themselves with their tongues, or when they have just eaten and are full - here the purring can turn into a blissful rumbling.

But beware of the cat when it hisses: in such seconds it simply boils with anger and it is better to leave it alone.
In conclusion, I would like to add simple wisdom: if you pay attention to your pet more often and analyze its behavior, then over time you will be able to establish the closest contact with it, when you can understand your cat with just one swish of its tail or movement of its ears.

And most importantly, love your cat, and she will always pay you in the same coin, then mutual understanding with her can be established without extra effort.

P.S. Well, this was the opinion of my Aunt Sveta, a veterinarian, about What do cats think about?

I, like a black cat, believe that it is much easier to learn to understand us cats and cats than professionals think.

What do you think: what was your cat thinking about today? I would be glad to hear about it from the comments to this article!

Your black cat, Jose Carreras with love at la-murmur.ru.

When you are an animal lover and have a pet or two in the family, you can't help but talk to them. Even though we know our animals can't talk back, there's still something comforting about having a loving ear listening to us.

When we relate to what is not human person, it is called anthropomorphism. We'll find out how smart cats, so it just seems natural to assume that they have other humanoid traits. But how similar to us are cats, really, especially from their own perspective? While we interact with them and spoil them, what do cats think of us? We delved into the psychology of our cats to find out exactly what they think about people.

Cats think differently about people than dogs.

According to scientists, dogs change their behavior when they interact with people and when they hang out with other dogs. Cats, however, do not change their behavior at all around people. A cat's behavior is much more subtle, and we can recognize it as its characteristic aloofness. While many cats love company, they also need their space from us.

MEOW: How do cats choose their favorite person?

Why does the cat treat us this way? One reason is that cats don't necessarily seem to understand that humans are no different from them.

Cats watch people.

In case you haven't noticed, your cat is looking at you. A lot of. This is because cats are naturally curious creatures and they love to watch everything we do. Because cats watch us, they study our behavior. They learn which of their people likes what. They learn which person is most likely to dump food or give them treats. This allows cats to understand how we act, but it doesn't mean they fully understand what we do.

Cats basically think that people are just big cats.

Cats' perception that humans are just big cats makes a lot of sense because our cats clearly think they can control us. Scientists have noticed that cats do not treat us any differently than they treat other cats. It's clear they know we're bigger than them, but they don't seem to think we're any different from their feline relatives.

Cats treat us with respect by doing things like rubbing their feet. However, this is still a behavior that would be used on a female cat, especially a cat that they respect.

Cats treat people like they treat their mother.

Some of our favorite cat behaviors—rubbing our feet, licking us, jumping up to look or “talk” to us—are behaviors they seem to have learned from their close relationships with their mothers.

MORE: Cats Have 1 of 5 Personality Types

Dr John Bradshaw, Director of the Institute of Anthroposology at the University of Bristol, explained, “Almost all domestic behavior of domestic cats must have begun as mother-kitten behavior. Their ancestors were solitary, territorial animals, and the only friendly behavior between two cats would be between mothers and their kittens."

Other scientists argue that cats are deliberately trying to make us feel motherly in order to get what they want from us. We know how our kittens love to manipulate. One study in Current biology, suggested that cats have learned to cry in a way that imitates the sound of a baby and evokes the need to "mother" our cats.

Conclusion

In fact, we should be flattered that our cats see us as one of them. It only makes our relationship more special. Plus, it makes us feel a little better about treating our faux cats like little, fuzzy humans.

There are not many animals in nature about which everything seems to be known; they have been with humans for millions of years, but they still remain a mystery. These are cats.

Today - about these amazing creatures.

26 facts about cats

1. When chasing prey, a cat holds its head horizontally at the same level, while dogs and people shake their heads up and down.

2. Cats are mostly right-handed, and cats are mostly left-handed. Interesting fact- 90% of people are right-handed, and the remaining 10% are left-handed, and they are mostly men.

3. A cat cannot climb down from a tree upside down because all the claws on its paws are directed in one direction. So the cats have to climb down the tree backwards.

4. Scientists believe that a cat can pronounce consonant sounds: m, n, g, x, f, v.

5. Cats can make up to 100 different sounds, but dogs can only make 10.

6. The brain of a cat, unlike a dog, is more similar to the human brain. Cats and humans have identical areas of the brain that control emotions.

7. During the Spanish Inquisition, Pope Innocent VIII recognized cats as the devil incarnate and thousands of cats were burned. This led to an increase in the rat population, which worsened the effects of the plague epidemic, nicknamed the Black Death. Has the cat god taken revenge?

8. According to legend, Noah prayed to God to help protect all the food in the ark from rats. In response to this, God made the cat appear when the lion sneezed.

9. In Siam, when the coronation of the new king was held, cats rode in a carriage, being at the head of the procession.

10. For short distances, a cat can reach speeds of about 49 km/h.

11. A cat can jump to a height five times its height.

12. Cats almost always land on their feet: the balance organs are located in inner ear cats, the tail also helps to align the trajectory.

13. Cats rub against people not only because they are affectionate, but also to mark their territory with the scent of glands located around its face.

14. Scientists are still arguing about exactly how a cat purrs. Most believe that vibration vocal cords located deep in the throat. To do this, the muscles of the larynx open and close the air corridor about 25 times per second.

15. When in Ancient Egypt When a cat died in the family, family members shaved their eyebrows as a sign of grief. The cat was embalmed and the mummy was placed in the family crypt or animal cemetery along with the mummies of mice. In 1888, more than 300 thousand mummified cats were found in Egyptian cemeteries.

16. The earliest ancestor of the modern cat lived about 30 million years ago.

17. A cat usually has 12 whiskers on each side.

18. The ability of cats to find their way home is explained by the fact that cats either use the angle of sunlight or they have magnetized cells in the brain that act as a compass.

19. A cat's jaw cannot move sideways, so they cannot chew large pieces of food.

20. A cat's back consists of 53 vertebrae. A person has only 34 of them.

21. A third of cat owners think their pets can read their minds.

22. The most famous long-lived cat was Puff from Texas, who died in 2005 at the age of 38. Regular cats can live up to 20 years (about 96 human years).

23. A cat's nose has a unique print, just like human fingerprints.

24. Cats can detect an earthquake 10-15 minutes before a person feels it.

25. 95 percent of their owners talk to their cats.

26. Cats are aliens. Even some scientists are sure of this. In their opinion, the main task cats - observe creatures on Earth, and proof of their alien origin is amazing abilities that other animals do not have.

Mustache records

Boeing is resting!

The loudest cat in the world has been found - the British Smokey: his rumbling can drown out even the sound of a Boeing 737 engine, because it makes sounds of 92 decibels (a similar “loudness” is possessed by a landing plane). His owners claim that the cat purrs so loudly that they cannot hear the TV and cannot talk on the phone. Scientists have checked and confirmed that the “accusations” are justified.

We didn't wait

His owner forgot to take one New York cat with him when moving to another state. Five months later, upon returning home, the owner found the pet curled up in his favorite chair. The cat covered more than 3.5 thousand km.

Flyer

The owners sent Beagles the cat from Australia by plane to Auckland (New Zealand). The Australian airline Quintas experienced real stress: the cat did not arrive at its destination, but a week later it turned up... in the cabin of another plane flying to Sydney. During this week, the wanderer flew around almost the whole world, having traveled from Australia to New Zealand, and then from Melbourne to Sydney and from Fiji to Singapore.

Kulibina

The scientist Bernard Courtois was conducting some chemical experiments in 1811, and his beloved cat was sitting on his shoulders. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, a frightened cat jumped from the chemist’s shoulders and broke the flasks with chemicals standing on the table. One of these flasks contained an alcoholic tincture of seaweed, and the other contained ferric sulfate salt. The contents were mixed, a violent reaction began with the release of smoke.

When the reaction took place and the smoke settled, the scientist saw brown crystals on the table. These crystals were later called “iodine”. It is a pity that the name of the inventor was not preserved in history.

Next to the greats

The English king Charles I adored cats: he believed that without his beloved cat he could not see happiness. He was so worried about the health of his favorite that he even assigned a guard to her. The cat died, and a few days later the king was executed.

Oligarchs

One rich lady opened accounts in Switzerland for her cats. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds of Switzerland fined these cats for hunting - they were charged with "systematic killing of birds." The fine was paid from the cat's account. For confirmation, the bank employees issued a form with the paw prints of the “depositors.”

In the Queen's service

Britain's most famous cat is the late Wilberforce. He lived in the Prime Minister's residence, where he was assigned to catch mice. He served under four prime ministers. Sometimes the cat was even allowed into government meetings! Margaret Thatcher brought him treats from all over the world. When Wilberforce died, Margaret Thatcher announced this directly at a cabinet meeting.