If you ever owned a pet, be it a fluffy feline or a cheerful dog, you are certainly aware that these animals are quite unique in their own ways. And they have been our beloved companions for long enough to deserve their own place in history. Heck! We even define ourselves as either cat or dog people! Whether a professed cat lover, or the owner of a happy barking companion, you have surely wondered: Do cats and dogs have true personalities? In this first post of a series on the Science of Cognition, we will explore what scientists have to say about our little spry fuzzy warm balls of love and scratches.
The early days
Cats: they already own the internet, but do they also own your heart?
Image Credit: noly @ Pixabay
Cat and dog owners alike will probably look at anyone who even questions whether their pet have personalities with a great deal of dismay. Intelligent as these warm companions are, it is hard to argue against that premise. But scientists don't take anything for granted, and it is their job to investigate and challenge existing conceptions. And cats have been no exception to this rule.
The early days
The quest to measure the intelligence and cognitive abilities of the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus)1 has been an arduous and long one. Their often mischievous and highly independent ways didn't help very much either.1 In fact, researchers had devoted much more time studying dogs than investigating household cats. After all, our canine friends aren't the social hallmark of companionship and excitement for nothing: their willingness to participate in scientific studies had served us well.
For instance, take the famous Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the digestive processes of dogs.2 Pavlov's earlier investigations evolved into psychological studies of behaviour, and as early as 1903 we already had his iconic 'conditioned reflex' as a direct result of studies on the cognition of dogs.2 By comparison, the mysteries of the behaviour of our fellow felines started to unravel in the late 1960s.1,3
Early experiments with kittens in 1969 revealed cats are so awesome that they can learn by simply observing other cats. Back then, Dr Phyllis Chesler trained the mothers of kittens to pull a lever in exchange for food - and milk, of course! Scientists aren't that heartless after all, people. Dr Chesler found that kittens that observed their mothers getting the tasty treats through the levers learned to repeat this task 75% faster than kittens who observed a stranger cat performing the demonstration.3 And the final experiments revealed that young cats which had only seen humans pulling levers to get the treats never learned to repeat this task.3 Later findings just confirmed cats' amazing abilities to learn through observation and social interaction with other cats.1,4 In fact, scientists believe this is the main way in which kittens learn their social skills and hunting techniques.1,4a
For instance, take the famous Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the digestive processes of dogs.2 Pavlov's earlier investigations evolved into psychological studies of behaviour, and as early as 1903 we already had his iconic 'conditioned reflex' as a direct result of studies on the cognition of dogs.2 By comparison, the mysteries of the behaviour of our fellow felines started to unravel in the late 1960s.1,3
Early experiments with kittens in 1969 revealed cats are so awesome that they can learn by simply observing other cats. Back then, Dr Phyllis Chesler trained the mothers of kittens to pull a lever in exchange for food - and milk, of course! Scientists aren't that heartless after all, people. Dr Chesler found that kittens that observed their mothers getting the tasty treats through the levers learned to repeat this task 75% faster than kittens who observed a stranger cat performing the demonstration.3 And the final experiments revealed that young cats which had only seen humans pulling levers to get the treats never learned to repeat this task.3 Later findings just confirmed cats' amazing abilities to learn through observation and social interaction with other cats.1,4 In fact, scientists believe this is the main way in which kittens learn their social skills and hunting techniques.1,4a
Kittens being cute playing and being cute. Aka 'learning to hunt'.
Image Credit: birgl @ Pixabay
However, most of the early research used techniques that are commonly applied to study dogs.4a Even though it doesn't seem like a big deal, it turned out to bias some of our investigations on cats. For example, a 2009 study reported their kittens failed to notice that only one out of two available strings would award them with a tasty treat - a test to measure what researchers call 'causal understanding' -, and concluded cats do not possess this cognitive ability.5 However, they admit that since all cats played with the strings, they couldn't rule out whether the felines were already getting enough enjoyment by simply having fun with the task in itself.5 - I mean, haven't these folks ever pulled a string in front of cats before? Of course they will enjoy it. If they are in the mood, that is...
Perception and Senses
This is one of these areas in which the so called 'curse of knowledge'6 - here I borrow the term from psychologist and linguist Professor Steven Pinker - affected a good part of the cognitive research about cats. Many studies just assumed techniques developed to investigate dogs would also be suitable for our feline companions. Well, cats are not known to ignore what humans want from them for nothing.
Seriously, a 2015 review explains that most attempts to investigate cats' capacity to solve a "hide an seek puzzle", in which researchers show some food to the kitten and hide it behind an opaque screen; the scientist would then remove the treat without the cat seeing the withdrawal - something dubbed 'object displacement test' for the aspiring psychologists around -, indicated cats are unable to solve the puzzle.4a This would suggest kittens don't have that cognitive ability, but a 1992 study developed an adapted version of the test, and found cats actually succeeded 86% of the time.7 What was the crucial difference? Strings! Yes, the researcher simply attached food to a string and pulled it, simulating how one of us would play with our cats, and then hid the treat behind a white screen. Sure enough, the cats followed suit this time, and successfully received their well-deserved gift.7
Strings and toys: apparently they do wonders in cat research!
Image Credit: Kapa65 @ Pixabay
Other studies - which are very few and sparse - revealed cats have a limited short-term memory, only keeping this kind of information for up to half a minute.4a However, their long-term memory works just fine, and they excelled in more studies.4a - As any awesome animal would, of course. The remaining studies on this area focused much more on how the senses of cats develop, but they offered little in terms of cognitive clues.4
Sadly, there are very few investigations using more advanced techniques of brain imaging applied to cats. Even worse, none of these studies delved into relationships between brain signals and feline perception and cognition. The studies that had been conducted focused on applying functional imaging to understand how cat brains are affected by diseases due to ageing.8
Personality and Human Interactions
We finally arrived at our last section in this first part of the series on cognition. And what a better way to end it than talking about cat personalities?
Most people who ever had any contact with cats will agree our feline friends have well-defined personalities. And, guess what? Scientists totally back them up! Although there isn't strong consensus on how many different personalities exist in the cat world, most researchers estimate kittens have a total of 4 to 5 distinct traits.4
One of the most relevant studies in this subject was conducted by a team of behavioural scientists back in 2011. In their research, the team asked 39 different owners to score 17 temperament traits of their respective cats, which were 40 in total. Scientists then applied principal component analysis - an advanced statistical technique that separates large groups of data in small independent clusters -, and found only 5 consistent personalities were needed to explain all traits measured by the owners.9
Ginger cats do have a soul! And as any cats, they love to be gently hugged and petted.
Image Credit: miktima @ Pixabay
In that study, cats that were curious, active, playful, excitable and vigilant received the personality type 'Active'. To felines demonstrating tense, anxious, hiding tendencies was assigned the trait 'Anxious'. Those which showed a Garfield-like tendency to eat, sought and avidly ate food, but were also playful, were labelled 'Feeding'. On the other hand, the personality 'Social' was given to cats that frequently moved around, but were vocal and sociable. Finally, the last trait 'Rough' was awarded to cats that were more touchy with their owners and sometimes avoided contact, ate hesitantly and were more rough during play.9 - You see, we scientists are not very creative when naming stuff...
But when affection is the theme under the spotlight... Researchers confirmed what cat owners all over the world already knew: their beloved furry companions are extremely affectionate.1,4 In fact, cats are a social species - take that, stereotypes! -, and most of the things they do to signal affection to humans are derived from their relationships with other felines.1,4 Amongst these interactions, scientists stress the importance of allorubbing - I personally prefer the term 'head bump', anyway -, touching noses, cuddling, grooming and licking.1,4
Affectionate and loving: of course cats aren't soulless pets with stone cold hearts!
On top of that, do they meow! Vocalisation, as the scientists call it, is very common in domesticated cats, but is not quite frequent in the wild.1,4 We are not entirely sure why cats are so upfront when it comes to uttering their strong and cute meows. The most likely explanation researchers came up with is that they learnt to use their vocal chords to call our attention and make us respond to their wishes.1,4 I know, I know, it does sound a lot like manipulation, but scientists seem to agree that they simply evolved different meows to better interact with us, instead of actually dominating the relationship.1
Indeed, felines found it so useful that kittens developed at least 9 different types of meows, while adult cats have at least 16 types of vocalisation.4a With all that diversity, our fellow balls of fluffiness have one of the biggest vocal repertoires of all carnivores studied to date.1,4 - I told you, they are awesome! And did I tell you that cats purr? Surprised, eh!? But up to now scientist are still trying to understand the purpose of the many subtle different types of existing purrs. Although they did find some similarity between baby cries and the purring of hungry cats asking for a fancy feast.4a
Other few interactions are worth mentioning, but they continue so poorly understood that we will not elaborate on them. For a start, cats react differently when they encounter people in different states of emotion. When facing someone in a depressive state, for instance, our companions will spend more time rubbing and cuddling to show affection; but they will be more vocal and active when dealing with people who seem to be happy and are talkative.4 And kittens also recognise their names and respond better to their owners than to strangers.10a But, as Colin Barras puts it when reporting to Nature News, "do they care?"10b - Good question, Colin. Good question, indeed.
A ginger cat asking to be let in... and then out... and in again...
Image Credit: NanaCola @ Pixabay
Sadly, we came to the end of this first part on the series of cognition. The lack of studies on cat brains and their relationship to feline feelings and behaviour is an important setback in this field. You see, one of the main problems is trying to make a cat stop for enough time to record a full functional imaging scan of its brain- fMRI for those interested in the technicalities.
At the end of this first part, we learnt that many stereotypes associated with our feline companions - selfish, manipulative, territorial and antisocial - are actually just plainly wrong. In fact, research showed cats are social animals with high capacity to demonstrate affection, form strong bonds with humans, and make awesome pets for anyone who is willing to have a more independent, curious companion around their houses and inside their hearts.
Do you have a cat? What is your kitten's personality? Share it with us in the comments.
Additional Resources
If you want to see some cat brain scans freely available online, just head to the awesome website developed and curated by the good people at BrainMaps.org!11
The BBC Newsround makes a compelling case as to why cats rule the internet12 - as if we even needed confirmation.
Talking of BBC series, BBC Earth had a whole pack of videos about cats - of course they would! -; and I recommend you check out this intriguing piece on cats and the human language.13
The good people at the Smithsonian took some time to create 'A Brief History of House Cats',14 and if you are into history, you should totally check it out.
Bonus:
If you are curious about science, but you actually came here for cute kittens and cat memes, then I guess I should tell you about the ICanHasCheezburger network.15a Created in 2007,15b this is one of the oldest and largest repositories of cat memes on the internet. - Because, why not? The website was so influential in the early days of internet memes that it created a language, the lolspeak;15c and inspired Andrea Kuszewski to start the hastag #icanhazpdf, which is used on Twitter to ask for academic papers from other researchers for free.15d
Talking of BBC series, BBC Earth had a whole pack of videos about cats - of course they would! -; and I recommend you check out this intriguing piece on cats and the human language.13
The good people at the Smithsonian took some time to create 'A Brief History of House Cats',14 and if you are into history, you should totally check it out.
Bonus:
If you are curious about science, but you actually came here for cute kittens and cat memes, then I guess I should tell you about the ICanHasCheezburger network.15a Created in 2007,15b this is one of the oldest and largest repositories of cat memes on the internet. - Because, why not? The website was so influential in the early days of internet memes that it created a language, the lolspeak;15c and inspired Andrea Kuszewski to start the hastag #icanhazpdf, which is used on Twitter to ask for academic papers from other researchers for free.15d
Thanks for sticking around for such a long post. If you have any questions, suggestions or opinions, just leave a comment down below!
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1 Crowell-Davis, S. L., "Cat Behaviour: Social Organization, Communication and Development" in: The Welfare of Cats, 2017, pp.1-22.
2 a) NobelPrize.org, The Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine 1904, Nobel Media AB, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1904/pavlov/facts/, retrieved 14/04/2019; b) Cambiaghi, M.; Sacchetti, B., J. Neurol. 2015, 262, 1599.
3 Chesler, P., Science 1969, 166, 901.
4 a) Shreve, K. R. V.; Udell, M. A. R., Anim. Cogn. 2015, 18, 1195; b) Turner, D. C., Behav. Process. 2017, 141, 297.
5 Whitt, E.; Douglas, M.; Osthaus, B.; Hocking, I., Anim. Cogn. 2009, 12, 739.
6 Pinker, S., The Sense of Style: the Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, Suffolk: Penguin Random House, 2015, 359p.
7 Dumas, C., J. Comp. Psychol. 1992, 106, 404.
8 Gunn-Moore, D.; Moffat, K.; Christie, L. A.; Head, E., J. Small Anim. Pract. 2007, 48, 546.
9 Wedl, M. et al., Behav. Process. 2011, 86, 58.
10 a) Saito, A.; Shinozuka, K.; Ito, Y.; Hasegawa, T., Sci. Rep. 2019, 9, 5394; b) Barras, C., Cats know their names - whether they care is another matter, Nature News, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01067-z, published 04/04/2019, retrieved 15/04/2019.
2 a) NobelPrize.org, The Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine 1904, Nobel Media AB, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1904/pavlov/facts/, retrieved 14/04/2019; b) Cambiaghi, M.; Sacchetti, B., J. Neurol. 2015, 262, 1599.
3 Chesler, P., Science 1969, 166, 901.
4 a) Shreve, K. R. V.; Udell, M. A. R., Anim. Cogn. 2015, 18, 1195; b) Turner, D. C., Behav. Process. 2017, 141, 297.
5 Whitt, E.; Douglas, M.; Osthaus, B.; Hocking, I., Anim. Cogn. 2009, 12, 739.
6 Pinker, S., The Sense of Style: the Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, Suffolk: Penguin Random House, 2015, 359p.
7 Dumas, C., J. Comp. Psychol. 1992, 106, 404.
8 Gunn-Moore, D.; Moffat, K.; Christie, L. A.; Head, E., J. Small Anim. Pract. 2007, 48, 546.
9 Wedl, M. et al., Behav. Process. 2011, 86, 58.
10 a) Saito, A.; Shinozuka, K.; Ito, Y.; Hasegawa, T., Sci. Rep. 2019, 9, 5394; b) Barras, C., Cats know their names - whether they care is another matter, Nature News, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01067-z, published 04/04/2019, retrieved 15/04/2019.
11 BrainMaps.org, Datasets - Felis catus, http://brainmaps.org/index.php?p=speciesdata&species=felis-catus, retrieved 15/04/20019.
12 Tull, A., Why cat clips rule the internet, BBC Newsround, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/33848745, published 11/08/2015, retrieved 15/04/2019.
13 BBC Earth, Cats Speaking Our Language | Cats Uncovered | BBC, YouTube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FiVTpGLtXc&ab, published 27/01/2016; retrieved 15/04/2019.
14 Zax, D., A Brief History of House Cats, Smithsonian.com, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-house-cats-158390681/, published 30/06/2007, retrieved 15/04/2019.
15 a) Cheezburger Inc, Lolcats - LOL at Funny Cat Memes, https://icanhas.cheezburger.com/lolcats, retrieved 15/04/2019; b) Cheezburger Inc, About Cheezburger, http://advertising.cheezburger.com/press/, retrieved 15/04/2019; c) Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Lolcat, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat, retrieved 15/04/2019; d) Gardner, C. C.; Gardner, G. J., Bypassing Interlibrary Loan Via Twitter: An Exploration of #icanhazpdf Requests, Proceedings to the 2015 Conference of the Association of College & Research Libraries - ACRL, Portland: ALA, 2015, pp.95-101, http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2015/Gardner.pdf, retrieved 15/04/2019.
hello i just loved your article about cats. I have five of them at home and I identified the five personalities mentioned in the blog. It's a shame to not have any studies on felines, I find the subject fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you liked the reading. Wow! Dealing with all five personality types in your kittens might be quite overwhelming at times. But at the end of the day we will continue to love our little balls of fur and scratches.
DeleteDon't fret, as soon as I catch up to the latest research about dogs, the series on cognition will be back!
Keep sciencing!