SEARCH BEHAVIOR IN CATS AND DOGS - INTERSPECIFIC DIFFERENCES IN WORKING-MEMORY AND SPATIAL COGNITION

Cats' and dogs' search behavior was compared in different problems whe re an object was visibly moved behind a screen that was then visibly m oved to a new position. In Experiments 1 (cats) and 2 (dogs), one grou p was tested with identical screens and the other group was tested wit h dissimilar screens. Results showed that in both species, search beha vior was based on processing of spatial information rather than on rec ognition of the visual features of the target screen. Cats and dogs we re unable to find the object by inferring its invisible movement. They reached a high level of success only if there was direct perceptual e vidence that the object could not be at its initial position. When the position change was indicated by an indirect cue, cats searched more at the object's initial than final position, whereas dogs searched equ ally at both positions. Interspecific similarities and differences are interpreted in terms of the requirements for resetting working memory .