TITLE:
Cats and Illusory Motion
AUTHORS:
Rasmus Bååth, Takeharu Seno, Akiyoshi Kitaoka
KEYWORDS:
Cat, Illusory Motion, Rotating Snakes Illusion, Cat Vision, Visual Illusions
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.9,
July
30,
2014
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.