I'm no expert, but...
...shouldn't she not be able to do this?
The scenario: the cat, Charlotte, is lying in front of and facing the closet doors, which are mirrored. I'm standing a few feet behind her. I need to get into the closet, so I call out to her and ask her to move. She hears the voice coming from behind her, but does not turn around. Instead, she lifts her head and seeks out eye contact with me in the mirror.
Now, I'm accustomed to cats treating a mirror image as an invading critter (rare), or (more usually) not really getting the whole "mirror" thing at all, and thus treating it with haughty indifference. I've never seen a cat use one as a tool before. Frankly, I always thought that was the territory of higher primates, elephants, and dolphins. But I've also always suspected there's at least as much cognitive variability within a given species as there is within humans and that we do them a disservice by randomly plucking a handful of test subjects and announcing that species x can or can't pass certain benchmarks.
I need more data. Got a cat? Please plunk it down in front of a mirror, replicate as above, and let us know what happens. (Charlotte's brother flunked, but, then, he also sometimes walks straight into walls.)
And, in case you're wondering: No, she did not move out of my way. She may have the neocortex of a chimp, but she's still a cat.
The scenario: the cat, Charlotte, is lying in front of and facing the closet doors, which are mirrored. I'm standing a few feet behind her. I need to get into the closet, so I call out to her and ask her to move. She hears the voice coming from behind her, but does not turn around. Instead, she lifts her head and seeks out eye contact with me in the mirror.
Now, I'm accustomed to cats treating a mirror image as an invading critter (rare), or (more usually) not really getting the whole "mirror" thing at all, and thus treating it with haughty indifference. I've never seen a cat use one as a tool before. Frankly, I always thought that was the territory of higher primates, elephants, and dolphins. But I've also always suspected there's at least as much cognitive variability within a given species as there is within humans and that we do them a disservice by randomly plucking a handful of test subjects and announcing that species x can or can't pass certain benchmarks.
I need more data. Got a cat? Please plunk it down in front of a mirror, replicate as above, and let us know what happens. (Charlotte's brother flunked, but, then, he also sometimes walks straight into walls.)
And, in case you're wondering: No, she did not move out of my way. She may have the neocortex of a chimp, but she's still a cat.
6 Comments:
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Anonymous said...
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- 10:16 AM
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Bill Abendroth said...
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- 11:49 PM
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Anonymous said...
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- 3:18 PM
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esquiver said...
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- 4:24 PM
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Anonymous said...
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- 10:02 PM
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Anonymous said...
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- 8:32 AM
Post a CommentFascinating. Do you suppose it's possible that your voice reflected enough off the flat surface that she thought it was coming from that direction?
Still, I've never seen a cat understand the whole spatial concept of mirrors. I've been curious about that too, and can tell you that Kratts simply ignores images in a mirror. He doesn't seem to detect motion there, or perhaps he understands the concept so fully that he doesn't bother going after images in a mirror. That's highly unlikely, though, because he also never turns around and investigates the primary source.
I can also tell you that teenagers, as a subspecies, both understand and revere the concept of mirrors!
-s.
I tried it with Frannie . . . but no soap. The mirror meant nothing to her (big shocker--her universe if roughly defined by food, petting food, a softer place to lie down. and food (but not necessarily in that order).
Pete the cat was too suspicious to even look at the mirror, thinking I was setting him up to play machine gun kitty or stick his head in my mouth.
I don't understand how I got such a suspicious kitty.
I think she probably just recognized your reflection in the mirror (after all she knows what you look like) and didn't stop to think about why your voice was coming from behind her. On another cat note, I've been keeping the garage door open lately during the day and found that Benjamin has re-discovered and reclaimed Keshia's stroller in there. Every afternoon he's curled up in it for his afternoon siesta. Cats are pretty smart!
Yeah, I think that's what I pretty much decided: clearly, she recognizes and distinguishes individuals (she reacts very differently -- consistently so -- to different people). And while it's a neat trick for a cat to recognize an individual in a mirror, it certainly doesn't imply that she either understands how a mirror functions or that she recognizes herself in the mirror.
I'm tempted to try a version of the mirror test they use with chimps -- in her case, surreptitiously putting a sticker on top of her head, and seeing if she notices it after looking at a mirror, but (1) I'd feel pretty silly, because I'd fully expect her to fail, and (2) I'd be entirely too freaked out if she didn't.
Interesting experiment. Did you ever try it with K?
Mee-yow. Hey, look, everyone: someone's cat can type!
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