Research from Japanese scientists indicates that domestic cats can locate their owners based on sound cues, even when they cannot see them. The findings were published this week in the journal PLOS One.
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The study, led by Saho Takagi, a doctoral student at Kyoto University, explores how cats utilize their acute hearing and directional ear movements to create mental maps of their owners' locations. Takagi noted her interest in feline hearing after observing a cat listening attentively with one ear tilted back.
In a series of experiments, researchers tested cats' ability to track their owners by playing recordings of human voices calling the cats' names from various locations. This setup included scenarios akin to “teleportation,” where a voice would suddenly come from a different room. The cats exhibited surprise when they heard the voice from an unexpected direction, indicating they are capable of spatially mapping their human companions using auditory signals.
The researchers suggest this demonstrates a form of socio-spatial cognition, as cats possess a mental representation of their unseen owners based on their voices. Previous research confirmed that cats can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar human voices and locate hidden objects, making the idea of them mentally mapping others' locations based on sound plausible.
Object permanence, the ability to track objects or individuals that are not visible, is not unique to cats; it is a skill also observed in human children, chimpanzees, gorillas, and other intelligent non-primate animals, such as Eurasian jays and domesticated dogs.
Despite the common belief that cats are less invested in their owners compared to dogs, Takagi states that the study reveals that cats do mentally represent the presence of their owners, even when they are out of sight. The researchers noted they are still uncertain if the cats' surprise was due to the unexpected location of the voice or the owner's absence from a location the cats had anticipated. They emphasize that the ability to form mental maps is a key indicator of animal intelligence and presents new opportunities for studying the cognitive abilities of cats.