Study Suggests, Your Cat, Tracks Your Movements.
Scientists in Japan have found that house cats "mentally map" the location of their owners, even when they are out of sight.
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'Newsweek' reports that researchers from the Department of Psychology at Kyoto University in Japan found that cats create mental representations linked to vocal signals.
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The study, published in 'PLOS One,' was based on three experiments.
One of the experiments relied on vocal recordings of participating cats' owners.
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With one speaker in the room and another outside the room, scientists were able to gauge the cats' responses to hearing their owners' voices.
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According to 'Variety,' the felines were most surprised when the recording played from within the room.
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Scientists believe that this reaction was due to cats' ability to determine their owners' location and know that the audio cue was coming from the wrong place.
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Results showed that cats were surprised when their owner appeared to be 'teleported' to a new, unexpected location, but they did not react in the same way when tested with non-social stimuli.
, Study authors, Department of Psychology at Kyoto University, Japan, via 'Variety'.
These results suggest that cats hold a mental representation of the unseen owner and map their owner's location from the owner's voice, showing evidence of socio-spatial cognition, Study authors, Department of Psychology at Kyoto University, Japan, via 'Variety'