submitted 1 month ago by ooli@lemmy.world to c/cat@lemmy.world

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[-] pugsnroses77@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 month ago

i saw a video where a lady rolled up cat treats in a towel. she said it kept her cats occupied for hours, i thought she was exaggerating with it being an easy puzzle so i tried it with my cat. he is very stupid. after he gave up i tried again folding the towel. he watched while i did it. tried for 30s before screaming and begging me to just give him treats. figured if i left it overnight hed get it eventually. he is overweight and is on a diet, so he is extremely food desparate. wake up 8 hours later and the towel had moved/been played with but not unfolded.

tldr; my cat is far too stupid to solve basic puzzles

[-] Canadian_anarchist@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Is he orange by chance?

[-] pugsnroses77@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

nope he's dark as the night with yellow eyes

[-] DrBob@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 month ago

Yes, but not very well. I am mildly irritated that one of the founding studies of experimental psychology is so little known. It takes cats quite a bit of time to figure out how to simply pull on a loop or step on a treadle in order to escape confinement and get fed.

Thorndike's work with cats predates Skinner's work with rats by decades. https://youtube.com/watch?v=hhNxeYYyCSQ

[-] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago

In my experience (which is anecdotal at best), cats can express wildly different levels of intelligence between even littermates, and especially between people interacting with them. Just because you failed to negotiate with them doesn't mean they're incapable of doing what you want them to.

Psychology is notoriously difficult to draw conclusions from because it's so hard to isolate the variables. It's cool to learn some less mainstream science though!