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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

An Automated T-maze Based Apparatus and Protocol for Analyzing Delay- and Effort-based Decision Making in Free Moving Rodents
Published on: August 2, 2018
Decision making and interference in the domestic cat (Felis catus)
Claude Dumas1, Bernard St-Louis, Lysanne Routhier
1Departement de Psychologie, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Montreal, PQ, Canada. dumas.claude@uqam.ca
Abstract:
Domestic cats (Felis catus) received a task in which an obstacle was introduced at the time they were ready to reach for 1 among 2 or 3 baited targets. The results revealed that when the initially chosen direction (i.e., before the introduction of the obstacle) and the new one were orthogonal, the cats reassessed distance, angular deviation, and visibility once they had turned around the obstacle (Experiments 1, 2, and 3). Then the cats chose a different target than the one that would have been chosen had there been no obstacle. When both the initially chosen and the new direction matched (Experiment 4), the cats kept intact their initial decision. The discussion focuses on the nature of the representational system of the cat. The discussion also emphasizes comparisons with dogs (i.e., cooperative hunters).
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