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Object permanence and working memory in cats (Felis catus)
S Goulet1, F Y Doré, R Rousseau
1Ecole de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes
|October 1, 1994
Summary
Cats struggle with object permanence when an object
Area of Science:
- Animal Cognition
- Comparative Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight, is a key cognitive ability.
- Previous research has explored object permanence in various species, with differing results regarding the representation of invisible displacements.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cats' (Felis catus) ability to track objects through visible and invisible displacements.
- To examine the role of direct perception in cats' working memory and search behavior for object permanence.
Main Methods:
- Four experiments were conducted using visible and invisible displacement tests.
- Experiment 1: Compared single and double visible displacement trials.
- Experiment 2: Analyzed search behavior in invisible displacement tests and transparent container analogs.
- Experiments 3 & 4: Tested predictions in novel object permanence scenarios.
Main Results:
- Cats successfully located objects in visible displacement tasks.
- In invisible displacement tasks, cats searched at the original location or container, not the true hiding spot.
- Cats failed to infer or represent the object's new location after an unperceived transfer.
Conclusions:
- Cats' working memory and object permanence abilities are limited to directly perceived positional changes.
- Cats cannot represent or infer invisible movements, impacting their search behavior in displacement tasks.