Is Your Cat A Genius?

Cats have a rudimentary understanding of gravity, a recent study has claimed.

16:19 20 June 2016

A paper from Kyoto University has found evidence that cats have a rudimentary understanding of gravity. 

 

30 cats that were used in the study were shown boxes, some with objects, others without. The boxes were shaken in front of the cats and tipped up causing contained objects to fall out.

 

Obviously, an empty box won’t rattle, which is where the experimenters shook things up a little bit. From time to time, they played a rattling sound within the box, even when it was empty, and on other occasions, an object would be in the box but it would be shaken in such a way to avoid making a noise.

 

The researchers found that cats spent the longest time staring at boxes that made rattling noise, something that is credited to their understanding of cause and effect.

 

However, when a rattling sound was not followed by objects falling out, the cats would glare at the boxes considerably longer. Researchers assumed that the cats are processing why their assumptions of cause and effect could have been wrong.  

 

"Some nonhuman animals have been shown to respond spontaneously in accordance with gravity (e.g., tamarins: Hood et al 1999 ; dogs: Osthaus et al 2003 ), which suggests that an innate tendency to react in accordance with the gravity rule may be common among mammals.”