title: Domestic cats (Felis catus) do not show causal understanding in a string-pulling task.
abstract: This study explored how domestic cats perform in a horizontal string-pulling task to determine whether they understand this case of physical causality. Fifteen cats were tested on their ability to retrieve an unreachable food treat in three different set-ups: (a) a single baited string, (b) two parallel strings where only one was baited and (c) two crossed strings where only one was baited. All cats succeeded at pulling a single string to obtain a treat, but none consistently chose the correct string when two strings were parallel. When tested with two crossed strings one cat chose the wrong string consistently and all others performed at chance level. There was no evidence that cats understand the function of the strings or their physical causality.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Whitt
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Douglas
authors.forename: Britta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Osthaus
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hocking
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats / Q000523:psychology*; D015984:Causality; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D014796:Visual Perception