Neuroscience
Boomer has adopted a new vocalization to tell me he wants to be picked up, placed on the bathroom counter, and have the water turned on for him. This has prompted me to search for cat vocalization articles for my e-friend Eliot.
Found something different, but possibly equally interesting:
A Comparative Study of the Use of Visual Communicative Signals in Interactions Between Dogs (Canis familiaris) and Humans and Cats (Felis catus) and Humans. Miklósi, Áam; Pongrácz, Péter; Lakatos, Gabriella; Journal of Comparative Psychology, Vol 119(2), May 2005. pp. 179-186.
Dogs' (Canis familiaris) and cats' (Felis catus) interspecific communicative behavior toward humans was investigated. In Experiment 1, the ability of dogs and cats to use human pointing gestures in an object-choice task was compared using 4 types of pointing cues differing in distance between the signaled object and the end of the fingertip and in visibility duration of the given signal. Using these gestures, both dogs and cats were able to find the hidden food; there was no significant difference in their performance. In Experiment 2, the hidden food was made inaccessible to the subjects to determine whether they could indicate the place of the hidden food to a naive owner. Cats lacked some components of attention-getting behavior compared with dogs. The results suggest that individual familiarization with pointing gestures ensures high-level performance in the presence of such gestures; however, species-specific differences could cause differences in signaling toward the human.
Full-text available in any flavor of PsycArticles, probably at your local college or university library.
- Feline Diabetes & Diet
please also read my May 2008 post More About Feline Diabetes & Diet ScienceDaily reports on a new study from Robert Backus, a University of Missouri-Columbia veterinarian which "...suggests that weight gain, not the type of diet, is more important...
- Treating Dog Cancer
Today's New York Times has an article about dog cancer. Seems some dogs are participating in clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of cancer treatment in humans and animals. Those in which the treatment succeeds are indeed lucky dogs. If only...
- Malcolm Gladwell On Cesar Milan
Have you seen the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel? It's fascinating, as a pet owner (cats, not dogs, but I can make some leaps) and as a fan of animal behavior science. Cesar Milan seems to have an instinctive understanding of dog...
- Arf! The Dog Genome Is Complete
The New York Times reports that the journal Nature reports that scientists have decoded the dog genome “to a high degree of accuracy.” Scientists can now compare the dog, human, and mouse genome to see what makes a mammal a mammal. Apparently humans...
- Animal Science-related
Here's a site for animal lovers of all domestic stripes: VeterinaryPartner.com. They say that the site provides "reliable, up-to-date animal health information", and "they" are "veterinarians and experts of the Veterinary Information Network." My...
Neuroscience
Interspecies Communication?!
Boomer has adopted a new vocalization to tell me he wants to be picked up, placed on the bathroom counter, and have the water turned on for him. This has prompted me to search for cat vocalization articles for my e-friend Eliot.
Found something different, but possibly equally interesting:
A Comparative Study of the Use of Visual Communicative Signals in Interactions Between Dogs (Canis familiaris) and Humans and Cats (Felis catus) and Humans. Miklósi, Áam; Pongrácz, Péter; Lakatos, Gabriella; Journal of Comparative Psychology, Vol 119(2), May 2005. pp. 179-186.
Dogs' (Canis familiaris) and cats' (Felis catus) interspecific communicative behavior toward humans was investigated. In Experiment 1, the ability of dogs and cats to use human pointing gestures in an object-choice task was compared using 4 types of pointing cues differing in distance between the signaled object and the end of the fingertip and in visibility duration of the given signal. Using these gestures, both dogs and cats were able to find the hidden food; there was no significant difference in their performance. In Experiment 2, the hidden food was made inaccessible to the subjects to determine whether they could indicate the place of the hidden food to a naive owner. Cats lacked some components of attention-getting behavior compared with dogs. The results suggest that individual familiarization with pointing gestures ensures high-level performance in the presence of such gestures; however, species-specific differences could cause differences in signaling toward the human.
Full-text available in any flavor of PsycArticles, probably at your local college or university library.
- Feline Diabetes & Diet
please also read my May 2008 post More About Feline Diabetes & Diet ScienceDaily reports on a new study from Robert Backus, a University of Missouri-Columbia veterinarian which "...suggests that weight gain, not the type of diet, is more important...
- Treating Dog Cancer
Today's New York Times has an article about dog cancer. Seems some dogs are participating in clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of cancer treatment in humans and animals. Those in which the treatment succeeds are indeed lucky dogs. If only...
- Malcolm Gladwell On Cesar Milan
Have you seen the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel? It's fascinating, as a pet owner (cats, not dogs, but I can make some leaps) and as a fan of animal behavior science. Cesar Milan seems to have an instinctive understanding of dog...
- Arf! The Dog Genome Is Complete
The New York Times reports that the journal Nature reports that scientists have decoded the dog genome “to a high degree of accuracy.” Scientists can now compare the dog, human, and mouse genome to see what makes a mammal a mammal. Apparently humans...
- Animal Science-related
Here's a site for animal lovers of all domestic stripes: VeterinaryPartner.com. They say that the site provides "reliable, up-to-date animal health information", and "they" are "veterinarians and experts of the Veterinary Information Network." My...