Abstract
Research on social cognitive ability in domestic cats is limited. The current study investigated social referencing in cats when exposed to first, a solvable, and then, an unsolvable scenario (i.e., reachable and unreachable treats) in the presence of either an attentive or an inattentive caregiver. Cats expressed more gaze alternation (P = 0.013), but less interaction with the caregiver (P = 0.048) and approached the treat container less frequently (P = 0.017) during the unsolvable test, compared to the solvable test. When in the presence of an attentive caregiver, cats initiated first gaze at the caregiver faster (P = 0.001); gazed at the caregiver for longer (P = 0.034); and approached the treat more frequently (P = 0.040), compared to when the caregiver was inattentive. Significant interaction was observed between test and caregiver’s attentional state on the expression of sequential behavior, a type of showing behavior. Cats exhibited this behavior marginally more with attentive caregivers, compared to inattentive caregivers, but only during the unsolvable test. There was a decrease in sequential behavior during the unsolvable test, compared to solvable test, but this was only seen with inattentive caregivers (P = 0.018). Our results suggest that gaze alternation is a behavior reliably indicating social referencing in cats and that cats’ social communication with humans is affected by the person’s availability for visual interaction.
Highlights
Domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) have traditionally been considered solitary (Driscoll et al 2007; Velli et al 2015)
Some evidence of successful vocal communication between cats and humans include, (1) the meowing of domestic cats is more pleasant than that of African wild cats to a human listener (Nicastro 2004), (2) cats emit specific solicitation purring to the owner at feeding (McComb et al 2009), (3) cats are able to differentiate between an owner and a stranger’s voice (Saito and Shinozuka 2013), and distinguish their name from similar sounding words (Saito et al 2019), as well as to match a human face to the corresponding voice (Takagi et al 2019)
The effect of body weight (t54 = 2.20, P = 0.032) on cat performance was confounded by sex, because male cats are generally heavier than females (t54 = 6.99, P < 0.001)
Summary
Domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) have traditionally been considered solitary (Driscoll et al 2007; Velli et al 2015). The social cognition capability of domestic cats may have been underestimated. As demonstrated by their ability to live solitarily or to form social groups, depending on factors such as distribution of resources and social experiences (Vitale Shreve and Udell 2015). Domestic cats are a popular companion animal (AVMA 2017–2018; Euromonitor International 2019), suggesting that they are successful in sharing a living space and communicating with humans. Using a method established in human infants, a recent study demonstrated that cats show a capacity similar to those of dogs and infants to form distinct attachment styles towards human caregivers (Vitale et al 2019). Research focused on the socio-cognitive capacity of domestic cats in the context of human-cat interaction has recently increased (Vitale Shreve and Udell 2015). Pet cats are able to recognize human attentional state (Mertens and Turner 1988; Ito et al 2016; Vitale and Udell 2019), read human emotional expression (Merola et al 2015; Galvan and Vonk 2016; Quaranta et al 2020), and use human-directed cues, such as pointing (Miklósi et al 2005; Kraus et al 2014) and gazing (Pongrácz et al 2019), to locate hidden food, Cats can use social
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