Object permanence in domestic cats

What is it about?

Object permanence is the belief that objects still continue to exist even when out of sight. We found that cats were more likely to play with a toy when it reappeared out of an expected location, in comparison to an unexpected location, which contradicts the typical findings of human infants and many other animal species.

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Photo by Wallace Wang on Unsplash

Photo by Wallace Wang on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We found that cats behaved in the opposite direction to what would normally be expected, given the large amount of research into object permanence in both human infants and other animal species (including dogs). We contribute further evidence to the complex behaviours of the domestic cat.