[HN Gopher] If I fits I sits: illusory contour susceptibility in... ___________________________________________________________________ If I fits I sits: illusory contour susceptibility in domestic cats Author : Hooke Score : 206 points Date : 2021-05-08 14:35 UTC (8 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.sciencedirect.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.sciencedirect.com) | 29athrowaway wrote: | Is this related to cat circles? | fortyrod wrote: | tl;dr for non cat owners: "Cat Traps Are Real". If you own a cat, | move along. There is nothing to see that you haven't already. | chowells wrote: | The paper starts with "cats have been observed to do this | thing, which we will take advantage of for an experiment on how | cats perceive the world." | | The actual test is whether cats perceive a certain type of | visual illusion. The test is whether cats will sit inside such | an illusory shape in the same way they do non-illusory shapes. | The result is that they do, indicating that cats process visual | stimuli in a way at least somewhat similar to humans. | | tl;dr You should at least read the whole abstract before | assuming you understand it. | fortyrod wrote: | It's great that you have my browser history and can tell what | I looked at. Or didn't look at. I think you could make a lot | of $ at Facebook. | slver wrote: | You have misunderstood the meaning of basic text twice in a | row. | ryanianian wrote: | That is shockingly rude and snarky of you to say. | fortyrod wrote: | Compared to this? "You should at least read the whole | abstract before assuming you understand it." I can do the | math for you, but it would be great if you could pitch | right on in there yourself. | SilasX wrote: | Nice, they got volunteers to print out patterns and use them to | see if/how often their cats sat in them. Great use of cat owners! | And, also, probably a shoe-in for the Ig Nobel awards :-p | fortyrod wrote: | Cat owners are used to being used. | supernova87a wrote: | I would be surprised if cats _didn 't_ do this, perceiving | optical illusions just like we do. It's the sign of an advanced | inference capable visual system. Otherwise, how could they be on | alert for dangerous cucumbers in their territory for our | amusement? | erulabs wrote: | It's generally accepted that cats were useful for early humans | because we hoarded grain, and so the cats were anti-rat | machines. The anti-snake traits of kitties may be an older and | just-as-useful reason we tolerated (and loved) cats than just | protecting grain storage. | snickell wrote: | Curiously, I have a cat Brownie who grew up feral in the high | sierras and appears to have subsisted on snakes as food/prey. | They're still his favorite prey. | | Instead of startling, Brownie the mighty snake hunter reacts | to cucumbers as: FAVORITE FOOD. | | He gets a cucumber almost every day. He hunts the cucumbers, | drags them to his lair, and consumes them leaving only a | small trail of seed viscera behind in his cave. | | He's been doing this before I knew about cucumbers scaring | cats on internet, and I think lends credence to the | hypothesis that cucumbers trigger a "snake recognition | circuit": a cat raised to see snakes as food rather (vs the | inborn threat response) reacts to cucumbers as food! | akiselev wrote: | That cats have a natural snake recognition circuit is news | to me. Several more anecdotes: | | A feral cat that gave birth in a family member's garage in | east San Diego (not the sierras but mountainous at ~3k ft | elevation) found a rattle snake on their property one time. | I had to scare her away several times while running around | looking for a bucket and some long sticks because she did | not recognize the danger at all. It looked more like she | was approaching a strange new male cat that was about to | court her than a venomous snake | | Regarding the cucumbers: another family member had a cat in | Europe in a village around 56degN - which is near the upper | limit for snakes, so he's unlikely to have ever seen any, | let alone eaten one - and the cat _loved_ cucumbers. They | had a greenhouse and had to be extremely vigilant after | picking cucumbers because the second they 'd turn their | backs the cat would proceed to take nibbles out of every | single one of them in turn, even if he was given one of his | own. I think your cat just likes cucumbers. | ChrisMarshallNY wrote: | That's a cool story. Props to Brownie, but I hope he's fast | enough to avoid being bitten by the few poisonous ones in | the US. | | In Africa, most of the storks ate snakes; including really | deadly ones. They would stomp them to death. That would | probably not work on pit vipers. | dboat wrote: | I don't think there are any poisonous cucumbers in the | us, his cat should be fine. | ChrisMarshallNY wrote: | I dunno. When I was a kid, they would freak me out... | selimthegrim wrote: | Has anyone worked out how cats react to vampire | watermelons in Romania? | marsven_422 wrote: | Brains are not computers running algorithms. | euroderf wrote: | We "hoarded" grain because we transitioned from hunter- | gatherers to an agro lifestyle in order to brew beer from | that grain, so cats and beer are natural allies. | tomnipotent wrote: | Ships and distilleries also used cats to keep rodents at | bay. The Glenturret distillery in Scotland even | commissioned a statue of their cat Towser after her | passing. | | https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/09/09/347093135 | /... | dylan604 wrote: | I like your position that alcohol was the reason we | switched to agrarian lifestyles. | sevencolors wrote: | Indeed mine have anti-snake protection capabilities that also | cover items such as nailfiles, pens, and plastic toy springs | SwiftyBug wrote: | My cat's anti-snake protection manifests as an extreme | hatred of earphone wires | dylan604 wrote: | Lucky for your cat, headphones no longer need wires. In | fact, I think Apple should include that in their | marketing. "Not only have we reduced our packaging, we've | also stop scaring your cats!" | mhh__ wrote: | Now your dog can eat the whole thing in one go! | fortyrod wrote: | Ya, have a cat who took on 2 copperheads at once with great | delight. I won't say I rescued him but I did get him out of | there with some blood loss (mine). Maybe a study on the cat - | mongoose correlation? | agency wrote: | I'm very sad I can't view the figures, which appear to include at | least a couple of shots of cats sitting in things. It looks like | the Kanizsa square illusion they're referring to is this: | https://puzzlewocky.com/optical-illusions/kanizsa-square-and... | vitus wrote: | Ars Technica has the pictures from the paper: | | https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/what-cats-love-of-bo... | | But, also, I was able to find a PDF download through Google | Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=95559247038 | 477495...) -- for whatever reason the HTML link provides me | with a "Download PDF" link even when in incognito. | est31 wrote: | > for whatever reason the HTML link provides me with a | "Download PDF" link even when in incognito. | | That means that you likely use university/college internet | and your institution has purchased institution access. This | access is usually implemented in the form that everyone from | the institution's network can download the paper, without | having to log in at the publisher's website or anything. | Basically an ip based whitelist. | vitus wrote: | I could believe that, if I were living on a college campus. | But no, I'm using a residential ISP, and every geoip site | I've checked in the past agrees re: my ISP. | | I recall in the past when I was on a university connection, | I was also greeted by some sort of affiliate banner | indicating that I was getting access through the | university. | isatty wrote: | While I appreciate the article (it's not on scihub) - why is | Ars such garbage now that either it autoplays something with | sound or permits such ads? | dylan604 wrote: | Probably has something to do with being owned by Conde Nast | rsj_hn wrote: | All the cats I had immediately sit on any new item brought into | the house, so there may be some confounding variables. | guenthert wrote: | Obfuscated Javascript didn't render here (Chromebook), found what | looked like the abstract: | | "A well-known phenomenon to cat owners is the tendency of their | cats to sit in enclosed spaces such as boxes, laundry baskets, | and even shape outlines taped on the floor. This investigative | study asks whether domestic cats (<em>Felis silvestris | catus</em>) are also susceptible to sitting in enclosures that | are illusory in nature, utilizing cats' attraction to box-like | spaces to assess their perception of the Kanizsa square visual | illusion. Carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study | randomly assigned citizen science participants Booklets of six | randomized, counterbalanced daily stimuli to print out, prepare, | and place on the floor in pairs. Owners observed and | videorecorded their cats' behavior with the stimuli and reported | findings from home over the course of the six daily trials. This | study ultimately reached over 500 pet cats and cat owners, and of | those, 30 completed all of the study's trials. Of these, nine cat | subjects selected at least one stimulus by sitting within the | contours (illusory or otherwise) with all limbs for at least | three seconds. This study revealed that cats selected the Kanizsa | illusion just as often as the square and more often than the | control, indicating that domestic cats may treat the subjective | Kanizsa contours as they do real contours. Given the drawbacks of | citizen science projects such as participant attrition, future | research would benefit from replicating this study in controlled | settings. To the best of our knowledge, this investigation is the | first of its kind in three regards: a citizen science study of | cat cognition; a formal examination into cats' attraction to 2D | rather than 3D enclosures; and study into cats' susceptibility to | illusory contours in an ecologically relevant paradigm. This | study demonstrates the potential of more ecologically valid study | of pet cats, and more broadly provides an interesting new | perspective into cat visual perception research." | | Thought that might be of interest to other who, like me, couldn't | grok the headline. | dvh wrote: | I predict that in the future, 90% of HN comments will be about | how to read the damn article. | Datenstrom wrote: | Was going to post the real link but unfortunately looks like it | isn't on scihub yet. | softblush wrote: | New articles are on pause currently | cpach wrote: | Do you know why? | rand0mx1 wrote: | due to some suit in Indian High court | sleavey wrote: | Why does Sci-Hub care about the Indian High court? | joshuaissac wrote: | Because Sci-Hub is defending this case in court (unlike | in some other cases where they ignored proceedings), so | ignoring the court order to pause adding new papers would | hurt their chances of winning. | sleavey wrote: | Interesting. I figured they would continue not to engage | with any governments. Do you know why they chose to take | part in this court case? | unmole wrote: | Possibly because Indian courts previously ruled that | making photocopies of textbooks for educational purposes | is _fair use_ under copyright law: | https://selvams.com/blog/breakthrough-indian-copyright- | law/ | captn3m0 wrote: | Sci-Hub is defending itself in the Indian High Court, and | the case is still being heard. The court asked it to stop | uploading new materials in the interim[0], and they seem | to be honoring it to avoid contempt of court I guess. | | [0]: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/delhi-hc- | asks-libg... | Datenstrom wrote: | Thanks, I had no idea. I hope the case ends in favor of them, | it has been an invaluable resource for me since I left | University. | | Does anyone know if there is a way to support them? | [deleted] | etiam wrote: | Surely this will get at least a nomination for the IgNobel | awards? | | Quirky study, but in the best sense of it. | dylan604 wrote: | I'm flabergasted that they recevie so few completed studies. I | thought asking people to take pictures of their cat would be | like "duh, I do that anyways" level of easy. | podiki wrote: | Coverage on Ars: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/what- | cats-love-of-bo... (and posted on HN: | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27069741) ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-05-08 23:00 UTC)