S. Goulet et al., OBJECT PERMANENCE AND WORKING-MEMORY IN CATS (FELIS-CATUS), Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, 20(4), 1994, pp. 347-365
Cats (Felis catus) find an object when it is visibly moved behind a su
ccession of screens. However, when the object is moved behind a contai
ner and is invisibly transferred from the container to the back of a s
creen, cats try to find the object at or near the container rather tha
n at the true hiding place. Four experiments were conducted to study s
earch behavior and working?memory in visible and invisible displacemen
t tests of object permanence. Experiment 1 compared performance in sin
gle and in double visible displacement trials. Experiment 2 analyzed s
earch behavior in invisible displacement tests and in analogs using a
transparent container. Experiments 3 and 4 tested predictions made fro
m Experiments 1 and 2 in a new situation of object permanence. Results
showed that only the position changes that cats have directly perceiv
ed are encoded and activated in working memory, because they are unabl
e to represent or infer invisible movements.