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Science

Cats Can Imitate Humans, Scientists Show For First Time (sciencemag.org) 105

Posted by BeauHD from the kitty-see-kitty-do dept.
sciencehabit writes: A number of animals, from dogs to chimpanzees, can imitate human behavior. Now scientists have shown that cats can too. Under controlled conditions, a Japanese cat named Ebisu copied the movements of her owner when she touched a cardboard box and rubbed her face against it. Researchers say it's evidence of complex cognition, because the cat must be able to "map" the human's body parts onto her own. The finding may also suggest that the ability to imitate arose earlier in mammalian evolution than previously thought. The study has been published in the journal Science.
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Cats Can Imitate Humans, Scientists Show For First Time More

Cats Can Imitate Humans, Scientists Show For First Time

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  • Pet owners (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @02:25AM (#60544980)
    seem to know more about this than scientists. I have an Argentinean Tegu (my Firefox spell checker flags as an error), which as a reptile is "known" to be untrainable, but anybody who actually interacts with these animals know this isn't the case -- it can be trained much better than a parrot, and anybody who owns these animals know this to be the case.
    • In science nothing is just "known", if the lizards are claimed to untrainable there must be a paper somewhere about study results that demonstrated it to be so. If you haven't seen such a paper, you just listened to an old wives tale and believed it when someone claimed it to be science.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 )
        Was Ptolemy published in a journal? He certainly was a scientist even if his ideas were ultimately superseded. Today he would be considered "self-published" and written off as a an unacceptable "primary source".
    • My neighbours have had two cats that could do a high five.
      Hand touching paw, apparently it looked like they knew paw and hand could touch.
      But always watching to get some reward afterwards of course.

      Food is everything.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      I remember the day I was sitting at the keyboard with my cat resting on my chest, and he started to lick his paw. Then he stopped, looked over at my hand on the mouse, and reached over to give it two licks. Then he licked his leg, then my arm in the same spot. It was in that exact moment it clicked for him that human hands were like his paws.

      I should've published that in Science.

      • Some shrimp can understand general notions of anatomy: fish will form an orderly queue to line up and have their mouth cleaned. Cool thing is you can join the queue too and get your mouth cleaned, so the shrimp are capable of generalising the concept from fish to humans, which they have never seen before.

        Really doesn't surprise me that a cat can do this. I think people who have never lived with animals really underestimate their intelligence. I even had a goldfish once which learned to beg for food.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          There was a lot of anecdotal evidence of this in cats previously too. Videos of them copying humans gesturing to them or even dancing.

          • This has been around for a while:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

          • >"There was a lot of anecdotal evidence of this in cats previously too. Videos of them copying humans gesturing to them or even dancing."

            I know. I am always amused by these types of scientific "studies" that seek to prove that water is wet.

            I have had and been around cats all my life. Of course they can imitate humans. They do so to varying degrees and the frequency and ability varies wildly from one cat to another. But it is no revelation. I have had cats that fetch, that come on request, that appar

            • I find many posts from "dog people" who say the stupidest false things like cats can't be...

              QFT.

            • They don't just imitate humans. Most would be familiar with how cats (poorly) imitate bird call when hunting. Anyway, I used to take our dog on a walk most nights and sometimes the cat wanted to come along. We'd all walk along and I heard this faint noise - it was the cat panting like the dog (and no doubt me when we went up hills). I heard him do this several times. That was the expected behaviour, apparently.

            • My cats fetch, and when a door is closed and they want it open, they come get me, take me to the door, and reach up and touch the doorknob. They know the secret to opening the door. They just can't do it with paws.

              • We had a cat that would do that door thing. He'd paw at the door knob knowing that was the trick but he just couldn't turn it by himself.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by thogard ( 43403 )

                My cat watched someone knocking on the sliding glass door to be let in on TV and duplicated that in within an hour.

                I know of cats that will turn on water faucets and open doors with lever handles.

                • I knew a Siamese cat that could turn round door knobs in order to open doors. I sometimes would stay over at a friends house in the spare room. The door would be closed when I went to sleep and when I woke up in the morning the cat would be in the bed next to me. Before I had a chance to ask my friends if they opened the door I was returning to the room and the cat ran out in front of me, reached up, and opened the door.

            • I find many posts from "dog people" who say the stupidest false things like cats can't be trained, cats don't bond with their owners, or cats are not intelligent or don't communicate well. Cats are DIFFERENT than dogs, not inferior.

              Dogs are Democrats while cats are Republicans.

              • My cat isn't actively trying to deny me healthcare and overthrow the United States Government.

                Or is it....

                • That's what Kitty would like you to believe...

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by fyngyrz ( 762201 )

                  > My cat isn't actively trying to deny me healthcare and overthrow the United States Government.

                  ...and as long as you keep the cat box clean, feed it, and water it, that will likely remain the extent state of affairs.

                  Woe be unto you if you fail in the guardian/ward relationship, though. The rebellion has been known to begin with a nice warm round of crap in your shoes or headphones, although I suppose earbuds may have changed that strategy since I completed my "human training."

            • Of course they can imitate humans. They do so to varying degrees and the frequency and ability varies wildly from one cat to another. But it is no revelation

              We have two strays, two rescues, and one Tonk from a breeder. Our other Tonk from the same breeder died earlier this year.

              The Tonk that passed could clearly understand about 10 different human words, possibly more.

              The two rescues live indoors, and the girl taught herself how to open cabinets and boxes (sometimes even taped boxes) by watching us. She hasn't managed to do a doorknob but not for lack of trying. But it is kind of a hobby.

              The two strays have a cattery out back to live in. I leave its d

              • >"I didn't want cats. She did. Being the man of the house we compromised and got cats."

                LOL

                I find that people who never LIVED with cats rarely understand them. I have heard stories like yours over and over from people I know. Most who didn't want cats or thought they were a waste of time or thought they were "inferior" pets radically changed their attitudes after several months of living with them and couldn't imagine life without them.

                Dogs are easier to understand and even those who have never owned on

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by fyngyrz ( 762201 )

                  > I find that people who never LIVED with cats rarely understand them.

                  Also, if they don't love them... it's easy for some people to disregard most of a cat's (or dog's, etc.) life if they are not primarily responsible for caring for it. It's pretty rare for someone who actually has to interact regularly with a cat or dog (and birds, etc.,) not to develop affection for the animal unless the critter has a very unusual temperament (and that, in turn, is almost always the result of stress, abuse, or both.)

                  A

              • I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your Tonk.

                I've had many cats during my life and my absolute favourite of all time was a Tonkinese. She was amazing. She was the smallest cat in the household but ruled the place. One time it sounded like there was a fight about to start. She jumped off me and went to the spot with me following to find out what was going on. It was like a scene from Fight Club with two cats about to fight and a few surrounding them watching. This Tonkinese just went in between the two abou

          • There was a lot of anecdotal evidence of this in cats previously too. Videos of them copying humans gesturing to them or even dancing.

            This is the problem I have with science as an institution as opposed to science as a practice. When there's unadulterated video of something happening, that's not "anecdotal", it's "evidential". I get that organized science's job is to express skepticism and enforce rigor. But too many - hmmm, let's call them 'acolytes of science' - turn their noses up at solid evidence such as the video you mentioned. They point out that it's "not proof", and proceed to defend the status quo, often for reasons that have no

          • I once saw an old black and white video where on a TV was a boxing event.

            A cat was in front of the TV on her hind legs and did shadow boxing with thee two on the screen.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              I once saw a video of a woman twerking and a cat doing the same on the bed next to her.

              Another one has a guy tapping his hand on the sofa to beckon the cat there, normally works but this cat just tapped it's paw on the floor.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dwywit ( 1109409 )

          Feed some parrots out at a tree in your backyard. Put some wild bird mix in a saucer. Do this for a few days, then stop.

          Those parrots will fly to your verandah, and make noises until you feed them again. They've associated the food (in the tree) with its source (you and the door you've come through).

          Plus, they're cute.

          • Feed some parrots out at a tree in your backyard. Put some wild bird mix in a saucer. Do this for a few days, then stop.

            Only got parakeets, not parrots round here (London; we have wild parakeets). I never managed to get birds to use the feeder in my garden. Don't know why.

          • Feed some parrots out at a tree in your backyard. Put some wild bird mix in a saucer. Do this for a few days, then stop. Those parrots will fly to your verandah, and make noises until you feed them again. They've associated the food (in the tree) with its source (you and the door you've come through).

            My wife got dive bombed and sassed by a hummingbird, because I hadn't filled the feeder recently.

      • It was in that exact moment it clicked for him that human hands were like his paws.

        Actually you have that backwards.

        It was in that exact moment it clicked for you that his paws were like human hands.

        • It was in that exact moment it clicked for him that human hands were like his paws.

          Actually you have that backwards.

          It was in that exact moment it clicked for you that his paws were like human hands.

          Never had a cat, have you. Young cats believe that human hands are tongues for quite a while. The petting sensation translates to their mother's tongue in their heads, because of course that's where that sensation comes from, because it always did, from their earliest memory. It takes a while for them to separate those early sense memories and realize that being petted by a human hand is much more akin to them washing their own face with a paw than it is to their mother's tongue. I had a cat who, once h

    • At least that my cat knows what is my face is obvious.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by GuB-42 ( 2483988 )

      We are biased, we tend to anthropomorphize pets way too much. We even do it with Roombas.
      That's why we still need controlled experiments.

      I have a dog, and many times, when a paper about dog behavior comes out, I think "of course, all dog owners know that". But sometimes you get surprising results. Just because it is feels obvious to a pet owner doesn't make it true, it often is, but not always.

    • It is about what there is evidence of. Pet owner think a lot of stuff, many of which is simply misinterpretation of the pet's action. Science is about evidence remember. Sor4ry to be brutal, but when i see people state "seem to know more about this than scientists" I see somebody which has no clue about scientific process and standard of evidence.

    • Problem is you can't trust pet owners, as many will get emotionally invested and claim things that don't hold up to testing. They project a lot and look at things through a certain lens, make assumptions when there are other explanations, etc.

    • ...a reptile is "known" to be untrainable, but anybody who actually interacts with these animals know this isn't the case -- it can be trained much better than a parrot...

      You should get your Tegu on television, maybe earn a little easy cash. Everyone would be fascinated to see and hear a talking lizard.

  • It's Revenge Of Noah's Ark!!!!

  • There are videos on the internet of cats using & flushing toilets by themselves. And it takes research to assert that cats can imitate humans? O_o....

    • There are videos on the internet of cats using & flushing toilets by themselves. And it takes research to assert that cats can imitate humans? O_o....

      You know when governments brag about how many jobs they created this month?

      Now you know how that number, isn't complete bullshit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )

      There are videos on the internet of cats using & flushing toilets by themselves. And it takes research to assert that cats can imitate humans? O_o....

      Being comfortable making assertions based on watching cats shit on YouTube: that's why it's a good thing that you, and the rest of the "pets owners know this durr" brigade, aren't scientists. "Researchers have shown the Japanese feline can imitate the actions of her owner under controlled scientific conditions". There is a world of difference between an animal being able to be taught a trick, or being able to work out how to achieve something, and an animal being able to mimic the action of a person on comm

      • I know it is the scientific process, but do we really need controlled tests for things that are obvious?

        For example, everybody in the world knows that birds can fly, but has someone ever proven it scientifically?

        • Hear hear! If hadn't already posted I'd mod you up as Insightful.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fyngyrz ( 762201 )

          For example, everybody in the world knows that birds can fly, but has someone ever proven it scientifically?

          Shhh.... puncturing a pompous person's balloon can get you a nice warm bowl of hatred. :)

          Total fan of the scientific method here, but yeah, cats can be damned smart... they have a range, just like people do. The ones out at the right end of their particular Gaussian are rarer, but they're around. Do tests like "recognizing self in mirror" and they pass with flying colors — I've seen definitive e

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
      I have had two cats do this (bar the flushing part).

    • A rather fine point, but there's a difference between "pets can be trained to perform actions that mimic human behaviour" and "animals do it on their own accord"

  • I'm not too familiar with Japanese names.
    Is Ebisu the name of the cat ?
    Is the cat the owner ?

    "copied the movements of her owner when she touched a cardboard box and rubbed her face against it."

    My cat does that all the time too but she hasn't yet succeeded in making me do the same :)
    The photo in the link doesn't help with the confusion, we can very clearly see a cat giving instructions to a human, the human shows signs of being docile, carefully trying to understand the instructions (and then I suppos
    • Subject and preliminary training

      Our subject was an 11-year-old female cat, called Ebisu, living with her owner in Ichinomia (Japan). The owner, Fumi Higaki, is a professional dog trainer, experienced with the use of the Do as I Do method to train dogs.

      from: https://link.springer.com/arti... [springer.com]
  • Human does cat thing.... Cat does cat thing....???...SCIENCE!!!
  • ... of learning, so all animals which rear their young should be assumed to have the capability of imitation learning. Mapping their body parts to those of humans is only an extension of mapping their own body parts to those of their teachers, so even that capacity should be assumed to exist widely.

    In short: Nothing to see here, move on.

    • Well, my cat eats and sleeps a lot. Probably the most lazy occupant of the house. I wonder where she learned THAT as I am the only one that she could imitate? /irony
    • No mod points, but I was going to say something like this. Animals that are raised by parents or social in nature must learn tons of things by the example of others. What to eat, how to hunt or find it, what to avoid, how to hide from or threaten an enemy... I think humans are still coming to grips with the idea that we may be special in a lot of ways but we don't have a monopoly on intelligence.

  • Hoomanz KAN be trainezd! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Miamicanes ( 730264 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @04:01AM (#60545078)

    Purrraise Bastet! Our long-term program to domesticate one of the lesser primates and transform them into our faithful servants has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. We've now successfully trained them to mark objects and establish ownership by rubbing scented skin oil from their cheek onto the object before relinquishing control & offering it to us as a gift, demonstrating concepts of volition, ownership, and sacrifice... and proving they can be coaxed into imitating us if we reward their efforts with healing purr-energy and allow them to bask in our presence.

  • "...she touched a cardboard box, and rubbed her face against it."

    Uh, what were you observing here, a human acting like a cat, or a cat acting like a cat?

    Put a cardboard box on the ground. Yeah, a cat will be hesitant. They will slowly approach that foreign object.

    And then they reach a paw out slowly, to eventually touch it.

    And if they like it or want to simply "mark" it, they'll rub their face against it.

    I mean for fucks sake, you could have at least walked down to Grandmas house to watch her cat flush the fucking toilet to convince us.

    And you wonder why taxpayers, g

    • Besides, everyone knows that cardboard boxes attract only two species: cats and human babies.

    • And you wonder why taxpayers get pissed about paying higher taxes.

      I am not sure I get this comment. Was this a complaint about how public money was "wasted" on this study?

      Even if the results were obvious, getting the results documented in a journal like Science has worth of its own. Speaking for myself if the only objective results of the study is that a bunch of rescue animals got cared for that otherwise wouldn't be then it would be worth it.

      In the U.S. the amount of money we have spent on presidential golf outings would have paid for something like 5,000 of stud

      • And you wonder why taxpayers get pissed about paying higher taxes.

        I am not sure I get this comment. Was this a complaint about how public money was "wasted" on this study?

        Even if the results were obvious, getting the results documented in a journal like Science has worth of its own...

        Oh? Please, feel free to elaborate.

        Humans and cats go back thousands of years. If you can realistically give me any example of a benefit from this study, I will happily concede that you have a point here, and maybe this wasn't cat pissing taxpayer money away.

        Otherwise, it won't change a single damn thing about humans and cats, wasteful spending is wasteful no matter who's doing it, and put away the strawman.

        • If you can realistically give me any example of a benefit from this study, I will happily concede that you have a point here, and maybe this wasn't cat pissing taxpayer money away.

          Sure. In many places, cats (and many other animals) have little-to-no protection under the law for various forms of abuse, being used as food sources, tortured, etc.

          The more awareness is raised that there are feeling intelligent beings inside many — perhaps most — of those fur coats, the closer we can get to abandonin

  • And until they are able to open my refrigerator and bring me a beer they will continue to be useless.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
      My wife taught one of her dogs to do this. Next time she was out the dog opened the fridge and ate everything.
  • I realize science should be done for the knowledge and not necessarily for any desired outcome but there's got to be a limit to all this tinkering.

  • No big surprise (Score:3, Informative)

    by heikkile ( 111814 ) on Saturday September 26, 2020 @04:42AM (#60545110)

    Kittens learn many things in nature by observing their mothers.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by N1AK ( 864906 )
      It might help to at least read the summary before posting. The article is literally about cats being able to equivalence anatomy from a human to their own form; unless cats are regularly brought up by human mothers in nature your point is entirely irrelevant.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by kbahey ( 102895 )

      Kittens learn many things in nature by observing their mothers.

      Absolutely right, though the article is about learning from outside their species.

      We had friend who have two cats, one was well trained, the other defecated everywhere. They attributed that to being separated from its mother too early and did not have a chance to learn.

      We had a cat for about 9 years (regular domestic short haired tabby), then we had another cat come in (a Persian hybrid, so much smaller). The latter was an adult (~ 5 yr), not a

  • The authors should retract the paper or at least change the conclusions. Everyone knows that cat don't imitate people, but people imitate cats. What we observe here is the macroscopic consequences of the Schroedinger's Cat Time-Reversal Quantum Eraser effect.

  • because the cat must be able to "map" the human's body parts onto her own

    Get a dog. Eat something that you dog does not find appetizing, like vegetables. Observe the dog starting at you and licking its lips, while you eat. Offer the dog some. Observe the reject what you offer. tldr; The dog knows you are eating. The dog sees you enjoying it. The dog thinks she might enjoy it too.

    • Get a second dog. Give them both vegetables. Watch them both scarf every bit of it down, switching bowls periodically, because 1) they each think the other's dog's vegetables are better 2) they don't wan't the other dog to eat *THEIR* vegetables.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by q_e_t ( 5104099 )

      because the cat must be able to "map" the human's body parts onto her own

      Get a dog. Eat something that you dog does not find appetizing, like vegetables.

      Most dogs like vegetables.

  • What happened here, is that the cat trained her human to rub her face on cardboard the way cats do.

    • Yeah I was going to make the same joke.

      "I scratched in the litter box and peed, then covered it up. What do you know? The cat imitated me doing that too!"

  • Cats rub their faces and body along everything. If anything the human was imitating the cat and the cat just did cat things.

    I fail to believe this story because cat don't do anything. On purpose.

    • Beat me to it. Did the cat imitate the owner shitting in a sandbox too?

    • I gotta admit that struck me. I mean, personally, I go out of my way to not rub my face against cardboard boxes. Who knows, maybe I'm missing something.

      Even if the human did it a certain way which the cat copied, it's still something that the cat was predisposed to do.

  • Cats may be capable of complex cognition, but itâ(TM)s not clear that these researchers are capable of it. Beetles are amazing creatures and can follow very complex âoemapsâ of the stars to navigate across the desert with few other landmarks. So what? Are they therefore a âoehigherâ form of life (whatever that is supposed to mean)? What tells us that this is anything like what happens when learning happens between individuals, or between species? The idea that there has to be some k

  • When I yawn and lick my balls, my cat immediately copies my actions.
    Must be deep understanding I guess.

  • my cat Fiver, perhaps the coolest cat on Earth*, was lying next to my head. I woke up. I stroked his head 5 times. He looked at me, reached out with a paw, and gently patted my cheek 5 times. Nuf said. *white polydactyl shorthair, with a touch of grey here and there. One green eye, one blue eye. I've seen him pick kibbles up off the floor with his paw and put them in his mouth, like a monkeyboy.

  • FIFY: One cat does one thing that one human did.

  • Our cat, Esmerelda, figured out that by hanging on the thumb latch of our bedroom door and flailing her body, she could open it when we were sleeping. This isn't a one-time thing, she does it so regularly that we had to put and hook and eye latch on the inside of the door to keep her out while we sleep.

  • Sure, you might watch an octopus push a rock with a tentacle. And then you might push a rock with your hand. And sure, you might have mapped the the tentacle to your arm. But that wasn't a requirement.

    I don't need to map body parts and mimic body motions. I may simply be moving the rock because I saw the octopus move the rock. I chose my hands because hey, that's the easy way for me.

    But you know, when my dog sees me pick up the ball with my hand, he doesn't use his paw. He uses his mouth. And when I k

  • I don't think most people realize that in the wild, felines of any species are more-or-less silent; making noise is not a good practice when you're a hunter, it alerts your prey to your presence. But housecats can be downright talkative; they do that because we humans are so damned noisy. So they learn early on that they have to 'talk' to us to get our attention. I had a cat for a while a long time ago that was used to being outside, but he'd get the crap kicked out of him by the other outside cats and beco
  • My cat doesn't give a damn what the journal Science says.

  • Who knew they were such as cats and chimps going incognito!

  • copied the movements of her owner when she touched a cardboard box and rubbed her face against it.

    The cat just figures that it has taken years to train its human to perform the aforementioned actions. And now finally: success!

    Next week, we start training our human to barf up a hairball.

  • The difficulty with establishing an explanation for behviourist learning models is that the key lies in the motivation (or driver) within the organism to associate the stimulus (S) with the response (R) in the first place. In this sense, the core behviourist S-R models can only really be descriptive, not explanatory. If you examine the various explanations in this thread, they depend on whatever internal driver is assumed (implicitly or explicitly) to have caused the organism to fucking even bother binding

  • The finding may also suggest that the ability to imitate arose earlier in mammalian evolution than previously thought.

    If the dogs were known to do that, then no, not really. Because dogs are not more (and not less) closely related to humans, that cats are to humans.

  • I think Cat is mocking, not imitating Human

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