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Across the world, more and more cats are being kept in captive spaces such as homes, animal shelters, and cat cafés. There is a growing need to understand whether cross-cultural differences influence human–animal interactions in these human-controlled environments. Cats are one of the world's most popular companion animals, and both the US and Japan have high rates of cat ownership. However, cultural differences may account for differences in how people feel about cats and how humans and cats behave toward one another. The research aim was to examine whether differences exist between the US and Japan across multiple facets of the human–cat relationship. Study 1 examined each country's attitude toward pet cats. Results indicate US citizens have significantly more positive attitudes toward pet cats than Japanese citizens. Study 2 examined owner attachment to their cat and pet cat social behavior. Results indicate owners in both countries were highly attached to their cats. In the US, but not Japan, owner attachment level predicted pet cat sociability toward the owner. Study 3 examined cat social behavior in cat cafés. The results of studies 2 and 3 indicate that pet cats and café cats in the US spend a greater proportion of time in proximity to people compared with pet and café cats in Japan. In all, differences and similarities were seen between the US and Japan. In humans, differences in childhood cat experiences and lower rates of cat ownership may impact attitudes toward cats. In pet cats, owner characteristics, the size of the cat's environment, cat care practices, and attitudes toward cats may impact cat social behavior. Future exploration in this area can benefit our understanding of cross-cultural human–animal interactions and how to apply these findings to improve captive-cat welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Dogs can learn how to solve problems by watching humans. However, whether this is also true for cats, which are also companion animals, is unknown. In this study, three experiments were used to investigate whether cats could change their behaviour and gain rewards efficiently by observing a human demonstrating how to obtain food. We found no evidence that observing human behaviour enabled more efficient problem-solving by cats or caused them to change their behaviours. Other than their learning ability, the biological characteristics of cats and the experimental context may have contributed towards the present negative results. Humans learn by observing the behaviour of others, which can lead to more efficient problem-solving than by trial-and-error learning. Numerous studies have shown that animals, other than humans, are also capable of social learning. Dogs, as humans' closest companion animals, can learn to obtain rewards following behavioural demonstrations by humans. However, it is not known whether cats, who also live with humans, can learn how to solve problems by observing human behaviours. Three experiments were used to investigate whether cats could change their behaviour and gain rewards efficiently by observing a human demonstrating how to obtain food. In Experiment 1, a human demonstrated how to open a transparent drawer and take out the reward inside, but cats did not significantly follow the same method as the human. In Experiment 2a, a transparent tube device was used to make the operation easier for cats. However, cats were not influenced by the human behaviour. As the devices used in these experiments were transparent, meaning that the cats could see the food inside directly, they might have required strong inhibitory control. Therefore, in Experiment 2b the tube device was made opaque, and cats again observed the human demonstration. Nevertheless, the cats were not influenced by the human's behaviour. The results of these experiments indicate a lack of social learning, including imitation, from human behaviours in cats, at least in these experimental settings with food rewards. Other than their inherent ability, cats' biological characteristics and the experimental context may have contributed towards the negative results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many animals probably hold mental representations about the whereabouts of others; this is a form of socio-spatial cognition. We tested whether cats mentally map the spatial position of their owner or a familiar cat to the source of the owner's or familiar cat's vocalization. In Experiment 1, we placed one speaker outside a familiar room (speaker 1) and another (speaker 2) inside the room, as far as possible from speaker 1, then we left the subject alone in the room. In the habituation phase, the cat heard its owner's voice calling its name five times from speaker 1. In the test phase, shortly after the 5th habituation phase vocalization, one of the two speakers played either the owner's voice or a stranger's voice calling the cat's name once. There were four test combinations of speaker location and sound: SamesoundSamelocation, SamesoundDifflocation, DiffsoundSamelocation, DiffsoundDifflocation. In line with our prediction, cats showed most surprise in the SamesoundDifflocation condition, where the owner suddenly seemed to be in a new place. This reaction disappeared when we used cat vocalizations (Experiment 2) or non-vocal sounds (Experiment 3) as the auditory stimuli. Our results suggest that cats have mental representations about their out-of-sight owner linked to hearing the owner's voice, indicating a previously unidentified socio-spatial cognitive ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether cats have a cross-modal representation of humans, using a cross-modal expectancy violation paradigm originally used with dogs by Adachi et al. (Anim Cogn 10:17–21, 2007). We compared cats living in houses and in cat cafés to assess the potential effect of postnatal experience. Cats were presented with the face of either their owner or a stranger on a laptop monitor after playing back the voice of one of two people calling the subject's name. In half of the trials the voice and face were of the same person (congruent condition) whereas in the other half of trials the stimuli did not match (incongruent condition). The café cats paid attention to the monitor longer in incongruent than congruent conditions, showing an expectancy violation. By contrast, house cats showed no similar tendency. These results show that at least café cats can predict their owner's face upon hearing the owner's voice, suggesting possession of cross-modal representation of at least one human. There may be a minimal kind or amount of postnatal experiences that lead to formation of a cross-modal representation of a specific person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dogs are highly sensitive to human behavior, and they evaluate us using both their direct experiences and from a third-party perspective. Dogs pay attention to various aspects of our actions and make judgments about, for example, social vs. selfish acts. However, it is unclear if dogs judge human competence. To investigate this issue, we showed dogs two experimenters manipulating a transparent container: one was good at removing the lid to take an object out of the container (Competent person), whereas the other was unsuccessful at this task (Incompetent person). After demonstrating their actions twice with different containers, both experimenters simultaneously tried to open a third container which contained food (Food condition; 30 dogs) or was empty (Empty condition; 30 dogs). Dogs in the Food condition looked at the Competent person longer than the Incompetent one, and female dogs in particular were more likely to approach the Competent person. In contrast, dogs in the Empty condition showed no preferences. This result suggests that dogs can recognize different competence levels in humans, and that this ability influences their behavior according to the first situation. Our data also indicate that more attention should be given to potential sex differences in dogs' social evaluation abilities. • We tested whether dogs judge different competence levels of humans. • Competence was operationalized as ability (good vs. poor) at opening a container. • Female dogs preferred the competent person when the container had food. • Sex differences might characterize dogs' social evaluation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used an expectancy violation procedure to ask whether cats could use a causal rule to infer the presence of an unseen object on hearing the noise it made inside a container and predict its appearance when the container was turned over. We presented cats with either an object dropping out of an opaque container or no object dropping out (turning-over phase) after producing either a rattling sound by shaking the container with the object inside, or no sound (shaking phase). The cats were then allowed to freely explore the experimental environment (exploration phase). The relation between the sound and the object matched with physical laws in half of the trials (congruent condition) and mismatched in the other half (incongruent condition). Inferring the presence of an unseen object from the noise was predicted to result in longer looking time in the incongruent condition. The prediction was supported by the cats' behavior during the turning-over phase. The results suggest that cats used a causal-logical understanding of auditory stimuli to predict the appearance of invisible objects. The ecology of cats' natural hunting style may favor the ability for inference on the basis of sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social eavesdropping, or social evaluation of third-party interactions, is a first step to image scoring, which is a key feature of humans' large-scale cooperative society. Here we asked whether domestic dogs evaluate humans interacting with one another over neutral objects. In two experimental conditions, the dog's owner tried to open a container to get a junk object that was inside, then requested help from an actor sitting next to her/him, while the dog watched the interaction. In the Helper condition, the actor held the container stable to help the owner to open it. In the Nonhelper condition, the actor turned away and refused to help. In the Control condition, the actor simply turned away in the absence of any request for help. A neutral person sat at the other side of the owner throughout these interactions. After the interaction the actor and the neutral person each offered a piece of food to the dog. Dogs chose food randomly in the Helper and the Control conditions, but were biased against the actor in the Nonhelper condition. The dogs' avoidance of someone who behaved negatively to the owner suggests that social eavesdropping may be shared with a nonprimate species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether cats could retrieve and utilize incidentally encoded information from a single past event in a simple food-exploration task previously used for dogs (Fujita et al., 2012). In Experiment 1, cats were led to four open, baited containers and allowed to eat from two of them (Exposure phase). After a 15-min delay during which the cats were absent and all containers were replaced with empty ones, the cats were unexpectedly returned to the room and allowed to explore the containers (Test phase). Although the cats’ first choice of container to visit was random, they explored containers from which they had not previously eaten for longer than those from which they did previously eat. In the Exposure phase of Experiment 2, two containers held food, one held a nonedible object, and the fourth was empty. Cats were allowed to eat from one of them. In the post-delay Test phase, the cats first visited the remaining baited-uneaten container significantly more often than chance and they spent more time exploring this container. Because the cats’ behavior in the Test phase cannot be explained by association of the container with a pleasant experience (eating), the results suggest that cats retrieved and utilized “what” and “where” information from an incidentally encoded memory from a single experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companion animals have established special relationships with humans, as demonstrated by many studies describing their abilities and bonds to communicate with humans. In this questionnaire-based study, we explored owners’ views of pets in terms of their emotional and intellectual functions and their relationship with owners, and compared the results between cat owners and dog owners. We found that although both types of owners most often regarded their pets as “family members,” this tendency was weaker in cat owners. Cat owners also scored significantly lower than dog owners for some emotions and intellect they thought their pets might have. Additionally, cat owners who regard their cats as family members tend to attribute “compassion” to their cats more strongly than cat owners who regard their pets as non-family. This study revealed that some aspects of cat owners’ views of their pets differ from those of dog owners. These finding may help us to better understand our heterospecific companions and establish good relationships with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasoning about physical properties of objects such as heaviness by observing others' actions toward them is important and useful for adapting to the environment. In this study, we asked whether domestic dogs ( Canis familiaris ) can use a human’s action to infer a physical property of target objects. In Experiment 1, dogs watched an experimenter opening two differently loaded swinging doors with different corresponding degrees of effort, and then were allowed to open one of the doors. Dogs chose randomly between the two doors. In Experiment 2, we gave new dogs the same test as in Experiment 1, but only after giving them experience of opening the doors by themselves, so that they already knew that the doors could be either light or heavy. In this test the dogs reliably chose the light door. These results indicate that dogs are able to infer physical characteristics of objects from the latters’ movement caused by human action, but that this inferential reasoning requires direct own experience of the objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]