In Head Trip, PopSci explores the relationship between our brains, our senses, and the strange things that happen in between.
Any cat owner knows how much our feline friends seem to bask in the coziness of a box. In fact, cats appear to derive so much comfort from enclosed spaces that their fondness for boxes extends to spaces that have no actual walls–and spaces whose “edges” are visual illusions. This curious phenomenon demonstrates potential similarities in cat/human sensory experience, and also ties into a larger conversation about how we can understand what goes on inside our mysterious pets’ little heads.
Edges are important–to humans and cats
You probably wouldn’t guess that the ability to recognize edges is critical to our survival, but being able to do so means also being able to identify shapes. That, in turn, allows distinguishing one object from another. This includes both possible threats and possible refuges from those threats.
This facility for edge recognition is just as important to animals as it is to us. “Boundaries are very important [to] any living being, to know when you’re going to walk into something or off a ledge,” animal cognitive researcher Gabriella Smith tells PopSci.
Thankfully, our brains are hardwired to recognize edges. But that also means we are susceptible to seeing edges that aren’t real. A classic example of such an illusion is Kanisza shapes, where illusory contours appear to define a shape that isn’t there. And we’re not alone: animals seem to be fooled in the same way—suggesting that their edge recognition facilities work in essentially the same way ours do.
Smith’s 2021 paper “If It Fits I Sits: A citizen science investigation into illusory contour susceptibility in domestic cats” explores how cats, in particular, have an affinity for boxy Kanisza shapes. They respond to these shapes exactly as one might expect—they sit in them.
What are Kanisza…
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