Object Permanence in Adult Cats (Felis catus)

Human analog tests of object permanence were administered to adult cats in order to assess as accurately as possible their developmental level in this particular cognitive capacity and to analyze their search behavior in situations in which an object has disappeared. Experiment 1 compared two groups, one that received the tests in their usual order of presentation and another that received first the invisible displacement tests and then the visible displacement tests. The results are conflicting with a previous research conducted by Triana and Pasnak (1981): cats are able to solve problems with visible displacements but fail with invisible displacement. Experiment 2 compared two modalities of object disappearance: The object was hidden under a cover through either its front or its rear panel. This experiment confirmed, in a five-choice hiding task, that cats are unable to understand invisible displacements: They searched for the object in the last location they had seen it disappear or under the nearest cover from this location.