Cats and Illusory Motion

Rasmus Bååth, Takeharu Seno, Akiyoshi Kitaoka

Cognitive Science, Department of Philosophy, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Department of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
Institute for Advanced Study, Faculty of Design, Research Center for Applied Perceptual Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2014.59125                

Abstract

We present the first evidence that cats experience visual illusions and that a non-human animal can see illusory motion. In three videos we show cats reacting with hunting behavior when watching the Rotating Snakes illusion. This is taken to mean that cats see illusory motion in this image due to the propensity of cats to pursue movement. This is further supported by a survey where 29% of the respondents answered that their cat reacted to the illusion. A number of preferential looking experiments were also indicative of cats experiencing the illusion, but not conclusively so.

Keywords

Cat, Illusory Motion, Rotating Snakes Illusion, Cat Vision, Visual Illusions

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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