WEBVTT - Will Cats Sit In Imaginary Boxes? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.960 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:11.560 brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. It's common knowledge that 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:14.760 if an empty box of any size is left unattended 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.280 and a cat finds it, that cat will sit inside 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.840 of it. Tiny cats and large boxes, large cats and 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.599 tiny boxes. It doesn't matter, as the saying goes, if 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.840 I fits, I sits, and it doesn't seem to even 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.160 have to be a box. It turns out that any 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.519 rectangle will do. A piece of paper, a laptop, of 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.560 anything rectangular seems to light up that box sitting instinct 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:46.160 in house cats. In the Twitter hashtag cat square highlighted 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.839 this cat quirk. I'm merely taping an empty square on 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.120 the floor was enough to lower a cat to sit 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:56.240 or lie down inside of it. A couple of years later, 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:00.240 this hashtag would help animal psychology researcher Gabriella Smith of 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.720 Hunter College, City, University of New York a construct an 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:09.039 experiment to gauge cat cognition. In April one, the journal 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:13.039 Applied Animal Behavior Science published her research entitled if I 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:17.440 fits I Sits? A Citizen science investigation into illusory contour 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:22.760 susceptibility in domestic cats. The Smith had seen hashtag cats 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.840 square on Twitter and knew that cats would sit inside 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.920 a two D square made of tape, not just inside 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.880 a three D box. For the article of this episode 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.679 is based on how stuff Work. Spoke with Smith, she said, so, 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.319 then the question became does this square actually have to 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.679 be there? When we ask what is this animal seeing? 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.160 People think of using dogs because they're so easily trained, 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.320 But cats are the perfect candidate because we already know 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.600 they will sit in a two D square. Not only 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.920 to cats not have to be trained to do this, 0:01:57.200 --> 0:01:59.320 they don't even have to come into a lab to 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.280 do it. A cat owners could easily take shapes to 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:06.919 the floor and record their cat's reactions. Thus, the first 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:11.680 cat cognition experiment to use citizen scientists was born. And 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:15.800 what better timing than during the COVID nineteen pandemic. Smith 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.720 put out the call for volunteers via Twitter in June 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:22.840 of Much of the world was on lockdown to some degree, 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:26.480 and cat owners were looking for something, anything, really to 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:31.000 do in their homes. Plus, Smith notes cats performed best 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:35.320 at home in the lab, they wouldn't behave naturally. She 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.160 designed the experiment so that the humans could gather cat 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.680 data over six days. Participants were given templates to print out, 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.520 a square to tape to the floor, and a set 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.520 of four pac mans, as Smith calls them, that could 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.800 make an illusory square. These pac man's are circles that 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.880 each have a ninety degree wedge cut out, But when 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.600 you arrange them at the corners of an imaginary square, 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.120 with the empty wedges or pac man mouths pointed inward, 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.919 they formed the four corners of the imaginary square. Scientifically, 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.760 this is called a kanitsa square, which means that pieces 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:14.200 of an image are constructing a complete image in our brains. 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.400 Our minds see an image in this case of a 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:21.079 square in the negative space, our eyes connect the dots. 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.079 If you face the pac man mouths away from each other, 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.880 we don't perceive any significant shape. But would cats see 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:32.880 the same things? Smith went into the experiment with frankly 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.560 low expectations and an open mind that she was truly 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.280 curious to know the answer to her question, but will 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.960 cats sit in the square that isn't really there? She 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.160 had no preconceived ideas what the cats might choose to do. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.360 She says that this was helpful in designing the experiment, 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.560 as her biases for one shape or another weren't in play. 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:56.040 She said, I was lucky I had any participants at all, 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:00.720 given how cats are. She gathered data over the summer 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:04.600 of with participant humans sending in five minute videos of 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.000 the shapes on the floor. If the cat positioned its 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.000 body within any of the shapes for at least three seconds, 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:15.320 it counted as a data point. Of course, cats are cats. 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.080 Sometimes the cat would saunter through the video without sitting 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.919 at all. A Smith said, I watched a lot of 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:26.200 empty videos as she recruited five DRED participants, and thirty 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.320 were able to complete the entire six day sequence of tests. 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.240 Of those, nine cats chose at least one of the 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.799 shapes by sitting inside of it with all four feet 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:40.000 for at least three seconds. Though the data set is small, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.080 cats did indeed choose the kanitsa square illusion as often 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.520 as they chose the complete square that was taped on 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.520 the floor. They chose both of these more often than 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.040 the non shape made by the pac man's that we're 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:56.440 facing away from each other a while. This was Smith's 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.280 first time using citizen scientists to gather data. She since 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.600 been involved in another half dozen citizen science studies with 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.920 dogs in the Animal Behavior in Conservation program at Hunter College. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.200 She notes that you don't have to have the cleverest 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:13.960 animal in the world to participate in projects like this. 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:16.960 You just have to follow the instructions then let your 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:21.039 pet do its thing or not. It's all data science. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.960 This research might seem pretty low stakes, but it offers 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.880 new insight into animal cognition and psychology. We now know 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.880 that cats can connect the dots and see a square 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:37.520 that isn't there. It's also a springboard for more potential research. 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.640 Smith said, we see videos from zoos of large cats 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.719 sitting in boxes, which makes sense because it's safe, like 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.599 a cave or den, But it begs the question, what 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.120 a wildcat sit in the outline of a square or 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.839 a kinitz As square that isn't a square at all. 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:59.400 This is the fun part of science, asking questions and 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.360 devising ways to learn the answers, and then letting those 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:10.920 answers inspire new questions. Today's episode is based on the 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.000 article I five Fit si sits The Science behind Cats 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.520 Sitting in Squares on House to works dot com, written 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.240 by Kristen hall Geisler. The brain Stuff is production of 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.760 I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.000 and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.120 heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.160 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.