Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Social referencing and cat–human communication

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Animal Cognition Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Cats’ (Felis catus) communicative behaviour towards humans was explored using a social referencing paradigm in the presence of a potentially frightening object. One group of cats observed their owner delivering a positive emotional message, whereas another group received a negative emotional message. The aim was to evaluate whether cats use the emotional information provided by their owners about a novel/unfamiliar object to guide their own behaviour towards it. We assessed the presence of social referencing, in terms of referential looking towards the owner (defined as looking to the owner immediately before or after looking at the object), the behavioural regulation based on the owner’s emotional (positive vs negative) message (vocal and facial), and the observational conditioning following the owner’s actions towards the object. Most cats (79 %) exhibited referential looking between the owner and the object, and also to some extent changed their behaviour in line with the emotional message given by the owner. Results are discussed in relation to social referencing in other species (dogs in particular) and cats’ social organization and domestication history.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1 Norwegian forest, 1 Siamese, 1 Bengal, 3 Devon Rex, 2 Maine Coon.

References

  • Albiach-Serrano A, Bräuer J, Cacchione T, Zickert E, Amici F (2012) The effect of domestication and ontogeny in swine cognition (Sus scrofa scrofa and S. s. domestica). Appl Anim Behav Sci 141(2012):25–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bensky MK, Gosling SD, Sinn DL (2013) The world from a dog’s point of view: a review and synthesis of dog cognition research. Adv Study Behav 45:209–406. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-407186-5.00005-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw JWS (1992) The behaviour of the domestic cat. Cabi Publishing, Wallingford

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw J (2013) Are Britain’s cats ready for cat cafés? Vet Rec 173(22):554–555. doi:10.1136/vr.f7278

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw J, Cameron-Beaumont C (2000) The signalling repertoire of the domestic cat and its undomesticated relatives. In: Turner DC, Bateson P (eds) The biology of the domestic cat. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 67–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw JWS, Horsfield GF, Allen JA, Robinson IH (1999) Feral cats: their role in the population dynamics of Felis catus. Appl Anim Behav Sci 65:273–283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cafazzo S, Valsecchi P, Bonanni R, Natoli E (2010) Dominance in relation to age, sex, and competitive contexts in a group of free-ranging domestic dogs. Behav Ecol 21(3):443–455. doi:10.1093/beheco/arq001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casey RA, Bradshaw JWS (2008) The effects of additional socialisation for kittens in a rescue centre on their behaviour and suitability as a pet. Appl Anim Behav Sci 114:196–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock J (1988) The British Museum book of cats. British Museum Publications, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Collard RR (1967) Fear of strangers and play behavior in kittens with varied social experience. Child Dev 38:877–891

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crowell-Davis SL, Barry K, Wolfe R (1997) Social behavior and aggressive problems of cats. Vet Clin North Am Small Anim Pract 27:549–568

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davis SJ (1987) The archaeology of animals. Batsford Ltd/Yale University Press, New Haven, London

    Google Scholar 

  • de Rosnay M, Cooper PJ, Tsigaras N, Murray L (2006) Transmission of social anxiety from mother to infant: an experimental study using a social referencing paradigm. Behav Res Ther Engl 44:1164–1165

    Google Scholar 

  • Driscoll CA, Menotti-Raymond M, Roca AL, Hupe K, Johnson WE, Geffen E, Harley EH, Delibes M, Pontier D, Kitchener AC, Yamaguchi N, O’Brien SJ, Macdonald DW (2007) The near eastern origin of cat domestication. Science 317:519–523

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Driscoll CA, Macdonald DW, O’Brien SJ (2009) From wild animals to domestic pets, an evolutionary view of domestication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106(Supplement 1):9971–9978

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards C, Heiblum M, Tejeda A, Galindo F (2007) Experimental evaluation of attachment behaviours in owned cats. J Vet Behav 2:119–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinman S (1982) Social referencing in infancy. Merrill-Palmer Q J Dev Psychol 28:445–470

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunnar M, Stone C (1984) The effects of positive maternal affect on infant responses to peasant, ambiguous, and fear-provoking toys. Child Dev 55:1231–1236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hare B, Brown M, Williamson C, Tomasello M (2002) The domestication of social cognition in dogs. Science 298:1634–1636

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hare B, Rosati A, Kaminski J, Bräuer J, Call J, Tomasello M (2010) The domestication hypothesis for dogs’ skills with human communication: a response to Udell et al. (2008) and Wynne et al. (2008). Anim Behav 79(2):e1–e6 ISSN 0003-3472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hornik R, Risenhoover N, Gunnar M (1987) The effects of maternal positive, neutral and negative affective communication on infant responses to new toys. Child Dev 58:937–944

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu Y, Hu S, Wang W, Wu X, Marshall FB, Chen X, Hou L, Wang C (2014) Earliest evidence for commensal processes of cat domestication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 7 111(1):116–120. doi:10.1073/PNAS1311439110

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kaminski J, Nitzschner M (2013) Do dogs get the point? A review of dog–human communication ability. Learn Motiv 44(4):294–302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaminski J, Riedel J, Call J, Tomasello M (2005) Domestic goats, Capra hircus, follow gaze direction and use social cues in an object choice task. Anim Behav 69:11–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karsh EB, Turner DC (1988) The human–cat relationship. In: Turner DC, Bateson P (eds) The domestic cat: the biology of its behaviour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 159–177

    Google Scholar 

  • Krüger K, Flauger B, Farmer K, Maros K (2011) Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention. Anim Cognit 14:187–201. doi:10.1007/s10071-010-0352-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leyhausen P (1988) The tame and the wild—another just-so story? In: Turner DC, Bateson P (eds) The domestic cat: the biology of its behaviour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 57–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald DW, Yamaguchi N, Kerby G (2000) Group-living in the domestic cat: its sociobiology and epidemiology. In: Turner DC, Bateson, P (eds) The domestic cat: the biology of its behaviour, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 95–118

  • Maros K, Gácsi M, Miklósi Á (2008) Comprehension of human pointing gestures in horses (Equus caballus). Anim Cognit 11:457–466

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCune S (1994) Caged cats: avoiding problems and providing solutions. Newsletter of the Companion Animal Study Group No 7, pp 33–40

  • McKinley J, Sambrook TD (2000) Use of human-given cues by domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) and horses (Equus caballus). Anim Cognit 3:13–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merola I, Prato-Previde E, Marshall-Pescini S (2012a) Social referencing in dog–owner dyads? Anim Cognit 15:175–185

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merola I, Marshall-Pescini S, PratoPrevide E (2012b) Dogs’ social referencing towards owners and strangers. PLoS One 7:e47653

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Merola I, Marshall-Pescini S, D’Aniello B, Prato-Previde E (2013a) Social referencing: water rescue trained dogs are less affected than pet dogs by the stranger’s message. Appl Anim Behav Sci 147(1–2):132–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merola I, Prato-Previde E, Lazzaroni M, Marshal-Pescini S (2013b) Dogs’ comprehension of referential emotional expressions: familiar people and familiar emotions are easier. Anim Cognit 17(2):373–385

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mertens C (1991) Human–cat interactions in the home setting. Anthrozoös 4:214–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miklósi Á, Soproni K (2006) A comparative analysis of animals’ understanding of the human pointing gesture. Anim Cognit 9:81–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miklósi Á, Kubinyi E, Topál J, Gácsi M, Virányi Z, Csányi V (2003) A simple reason for a big difference: wolves do not look back at humans, but dogs do. Curr Biol 13:763–766

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miklósi Á, Pongrácz P, Lakatos G, Topál J, Csányi V (2005) A comparative study of the use of visual communicative signals in interactions between dogs (Canis familiaris) and humans and cats (Felis catus) and humans. J Comp Psychol 119:179–186

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mumme DL, Fernald A, Herrera C (1966) Infants’ responses to facial and vocal emotional signals in a social referencing paradigm. Child Dev 67:3219–3237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagasawa M, Murai K, Mogi K, Kikusui T (2011) Dogs can discriminate human smiling faces from blank expressions. Anim Cognit 14(4):525–533

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicastro N (2004) Perceptual and acoustic evidence for species-level differences in meow vocalizations by domestic cats (Felis catus) and african wild cats (Felis silvestris lybica). J Comp Psychol 118(3):287–296

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pan Y, Araujo JA, Burrows J, de Rivera C, Gore A, Bhatnagar S, Milgram NW (2013) Cognitive enhancement in middle-aged and old cats with dietary supplementation with a nutrient blend containing fish oil, B vitamins, antioxidants and arginine. Br J Nutr 14 110(1):40–49. doi:10.1017/S0007114512004771

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pisa PE, Agrillo C (2009) Quantity discrimination in felines: a preliminary investigation of the domestic cat (Felis silvestris catus). J Ethol 27:289–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prato-Previde E, Marshall-Pescini S (2014) Social looking in the domestic dog. In: Horowitz A (ed) Dog behaviour and cognition: the scientific study of Canis familiaris. Springer, Berlin, pp 101–132

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Proops L, McComb K (2010) Attributing attention: the use of human-given cues by domestic horses (Equus caballus). Anim Cognit 13:197–205. doi:10.1007/s10071-009-0257-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Proops L, Rayner J, Taylor AM, McComb K (2013) The responses of young domestic horses to human-given cues. PLoS One 8(6):e67000

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rieger G, Turner DC (1999) How depressive moods affect the behavior of singly living persons toward their cats. Anthrozoos 12(4):224–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen WD, Adamson LB, Bakeman L (1992) An experimental investigation of infant social referencing: mothers message and gender differences. Dev Psychol 28:1172–1178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russell CL, Bard KA, Adamson LB (1997) Social referencing by young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). J Comp Psychol 111:185–193

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Saito A, Shinozuka K (2013) Vocal recognition of owners by domestic cats (Felis catus). Anim Cognit 16(4):685–690. doi:10.1007/s10071-013-0620-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Savolainen P, Zhang Y, Luo J, Lundeberg J, Leitner T (2002) Genetic evidence for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs. Science 298:1610–1613

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Serpell JA (2000) Domestication and history of the cat. In: Turner DC, Bateson P (eds) The domestic cat—the biology of its behaviour, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 179–192

    Google Scholar 

  • Soproni K, Miklósi Á, Topál J, Csányi V (2001) Comprehension of human communicative signs in pet dogs (Canis familiaris). J Comp Psychol 115:122–126

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Todd NB (1978) An ecological, behavioral genetic model for the domestication of the cat. Carnivore 1:52–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner DC (1991) The ethology of the human–cat relationship. Swiss Arch Vet Med 133:63–70

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Udell MAR, Wynne CDL (2010) Ontogeny and phylogeny: both are essential to human sensitive behaviour in the genus Canis. Anim Behav 79:e9–e14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaish A, Striano T (2004) Is visual reference necessary? Contributions of facial versus vocal cues in 12-month-olds’ social referencing behavior. Dev Sci 7:261–269

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van den Bos R (1998) Post-conflict stress-response in confined group-living cats (Fells silvestris catus). Appl Anim Behav Sci 59:323–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vigne JD, Guilaine J, Debue K, Haye L, Gérard P (2004) Early taming of the cat in Cyprus. Science 304(5668):259 American Association for the Advancement of Science Language JSTOR Journals

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • von Holdt BM, Pollinger JP, Lohmueller KE, Han E, Parker HG, Quignon P, Degenhardt D, Boyko AR, Earl DA, Auton A, Spady TC, Elkahloun A, Geffen E, Pilot M, Jedrejewski W, Greco C, Randi E, Bannasch D, Wilton A, Shearman J, Musiani M, Cargill M, Jones P, Qian Z, Shear Huank W, Ding ZL, Zhang Y, Bustamante C, Ostrander EA, Novembre J, Wayne RK (2010) Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature08837

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiten A, Horner V, LitchWeld CA, Marshall-Pescini S (2004) How do apes ape? Learn Behav 32:36–52

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whitt E, Douglas M, Osthaus B, Hocking I (2009) Domestic cats (Felis catus) do not show causal understanding in a string-pulling task. Anim Cognit 12:739–743

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zentall TR (2006) Imitation: definitions, evidence and mechanisms. Anim Cogn 9:335–353

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a PhD and postdoctoral grant from Milan University to Isabella Merola and Sarah Marshall-Pescini. A special thanks to Emanuela Ponzone for her invaluable help in data collection and scoring, and Paola Valsecchi for insightful comments on the manuscript. Finally, we would like to thank all the owners and cats that participated as volunteers. This research complies with the current Italian laws on animal welfare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Medico-Chirurgica e dei Trapianti, Sezione di Neuroscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via F.lli Cervi 93, 20090, Segrate, MI, Italy

    I. Merola, M. Lazzaroni, S. Marshall-Pescini & E. Prato-Previde

  2. School of Life Sciences, Joseph Bank Laboratories, University of Lincoln, Green Lane, Lincoln, LN6 7DL, Lincolnshire, UK

    I. Merola

  3. Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Medical University of Vienna, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    S. Marshall-Pescini

Authors
  1. I. Merola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Lazzaroni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. S. Marshall-Pescini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. E. Prato-Previde
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to I. Merola.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Merola, I., Lazzaroni, M., Marshall-Pescini, S. et al. Social referencing and cat–human communication. Anim Cogn 18, 639–648 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0832-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-014-0832-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation