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If I fits I sits: illusory contour susceptibility in domestic cats
- agency 5y agoI'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-triangle-illusions/ https://puzzlewocky.com/optical-illusions/kanizsa-square-and...
- vitus 5y agoArs Technica has the pictures from the paper: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/what-cats-love-of-boxes-and-squares-can-tell-us-about-their-visual-perception/ 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=9555924703847749513 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=95559247038477495...) -- for whatever reason the HTML link provides me with a "Download PDF" link even when in incognito.
- est31 5y ago> 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 5y agoI 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 5y agoWhile 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 5y agoProbably has something to do with being owned by Conde Nast
- jasonwatkinspdx 5y agoKen sold Ars to Conde Nast quite some time ago. I've not been active on the ars forums in years, but my understanding is Aurich runs the community these days, but does not have total decision making power over the biz side.
- e3bc54b2 5y agoThat has not been new for a while now. Arch was always some of the top reporting brass imo, what with having subscriptions since very early on. But sometime 5-7 years ago when I ultimately stopped reading it, I distinctly remember a truly giant, fully scrolled and obnoxiously obtrusive ad for LG television that went and moved the page everywhere you scrolled. It was full of bright colors and strokes of lights going across the page and I remember it being in extreme contrast with the white-on-black plain text article. It was then I realised that Ars, apart from slightly longer articles, is not much different that average publication. Then they launched their own 'video platform' which is what you are seeing promoted left and right.
- astrange 5y agoAlmost no website has full control or preapproval of the ads on it. They accept sales on an open platform and sometimes bad ads sneak on there. It's not even always possible to report them.
- e3bc54b2 5y agoThat one particular instance was memorable because it was very unlike any other ads on Ads before. I remember there was some official post later about 'new type of ads' but I fail to find it currently. That particular incident was a result of explicit cooperation and not some random ad placement.
- rsj_hn 5y agoAll the cats I had immediately sit on any new item brought into the house, so there may be some confounding variables.
- gattilorenz 5y agoThe article mentions a control shape (made by turning the "pacmans" around, thus making the illusory square disappear)
- rsj_hn 5y agoI didn't notice that, thank you.
- agency 5y agoMy cats do the same thing. Any novel surface will be sat on. Cardboard boxes (full or empty or collapsed) especially but their favorite seems to be clothes. I personally chose to believe it's because my clothes smell like me and they love me and I will not be accepting alternative explanations at this time.
- gwern 5y agoMirror: https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/2021-smith.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/catnip/2021-smith.pdf
- mcbishop 5y agoSadly, it's beneath scientific journals to feature a picture of a cat sitting proudly in a pretend box.
- Datenstrom 5y agoWas going to post the real link but unfortunately looks like it isn't on scihub yet.
- softblush 5y agoNew articles are on pause currently
- cpach 5y agoDo you know why?
- rand0mx1 5y agodue to some suit in Indian High court
- sleavey 5y agoWhy does Sci-Hub care about the Indian High court?
- joshuaissac 5y agoBecause 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 5y agoInteresting. 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 5y agoPossibly 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/ https://selvams.com/blog/breakthrough-indian-copyright-law/
- supernova87a 5y agoI 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 5y agoIt'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.
- sevencolors 5y agoIndeed mine have anti-snake protection capabilities that also cover items such as nailfiles, pens, and plastic toy springs
- SwiftyBug 5y agoMy cat's anti-snake protection manifests as an extreme hatred of earphone wires
- dylan604 5y agoLucky 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__ 5y agoNow your dog can eat the whole thing in one go!
- SilasX 5y agoI named one of my cats Cordie because she liked to attack the (very antique) N64 controller cords.
- guenthert 5y agoObfuscated 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.
- SilasX 5y agoNice, 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 5y agoCat owners are used to being used.
- fortyrod 5y agotl;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 5y agoThe 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 5y agoIt'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.
- ryanianian 5y agoThat is shockingly rude and snarky of you to say.
- fortyrod 5y agoCompared 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.
- slver 5y agoYou have misunderstood the meaning of basic text twice in a row.
- dang 5y agoPlease don't escalate like this, even when another commenter reacted badly or you feel they did. It may not feel like you owe them better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it. The ecosystem is fragile here. Fortunately your comment history is otherwise pretty good, so this should be easy to fix. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- podiki 5y agoCoverage on Ars: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/what-cats-love-of-boxes-and-squares-can-tell-us-about-their-visual-perception/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/what-cats-love-of-bo... (and posted on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27069741 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27069741)
- 29athrowaway 5y agoIs this related to cat circles?
- etiam 5y agoSurely this will get at least a nomination for the IgNobel awards? Quirky study, but in the best sense of it.
- dylan604 5y agoI'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.
- okoslaatoo 5y agocats do not always sit where they fit. they do like calm comfortable places.
- SigmundA 5y agoIt always amuses me that large cats are no different than house cats, they seem to act exactly the same including sitting in boxes [1]. Only difference is when the large cat gets annoyed for unknown reasons it kills you rather than just scratching your arm up and that’s just due to a difference in size not behavior it seems. 1. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/404268504021009708/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/404268504021009708/
- SigmundA 5y agoNot sure what happened to that link here is a different one and the video where most of it came from: https://imgur.com/r/aww/SM5QtHy https://imgur.com/r/aww/SM5QtHy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11uu8L8FTY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11uu8L8FTY
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rebuilder 5y ago94% of the participants did not complete all the assigned trials. That left 30 participants Who did, and among those, 9 cats were found to select " at least one stimulus by sitting within the contours (illusory or otherwise) with all limbs for at least three seconds." So when they're saying this should be repeated in a controlled setting, they're not kidding. Why does a citizens scientist decide to not complete a study involving their cat? How about boredom, because their cat doesn't do anything?
- pnt12 5y agoIt is completely possible that there was a strong bias. With that said, all research has its limits. I think the authors have been very honest to discuss their findings and the limitation of the context - best case scenario someone takes the idea to the next level, worst case scenario we know it's a limited study and not conclusive.
- noisy_boy 5y agoPrime example: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCRVruzlQF5cqpw9jQgIgNdw https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCRVruzlQF5cqpw9jQgIgNdw
- efitz 5y agoI think that this paper might be nominated for an Ig Nobel prize [1]. I don’t know about the quality of the study but it was interesting. 1. https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/ https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/ [edit] added link to Ig Nobel awards
- AmIDev 5y agoThe paper link: http://libgen.gs/scimag/ads.php?doi=10.1016%2Fj.applanim.2021.105338 http://libgen.gs/scimag/ads.php?doi=10.1016%2Fj.applanim.202...
- SigmundA 5y agoAnother observation after reading the article again, reminds me of the explanation for vampires unable to stand crucifixes in Peter Watt's Blindsight: "a cross-wiring of normally-distinct receptor arrays in the visual cortex, resulting in grand mal-like feedback seizures whenever the arrays processing vertical and horizontal stimuli fired simultaneously across a sufficiently large arc of the visual field. Since intersecting right angles are virtually nonexistent in nature, natural selection did not weed out the Glitch until H. sapiens sapiens developed Euclidean architecture; by then, the trait had become fixed across H. sapiens vampiris via genetic drift, and – suddenly denied access to its prey – the entire subspecies went extinct shortly after the dawn of recorded history."
- marmot777 5y agoLol. I can’t quite tell if this is real or a spoof. Perfect.
- marmot777 5y ago“Optimal Adaptive Balancing of Food Seeking and Territoriality in Feline cactus” We’ve published the study in the peer reviewed Catster Magazine.