Photo/Illutration A cat tries to get at food contained in a drawer. (Provided by Minori Arahori)

Chalk one up for dogs as researchers have found that pets cats don't change their behavior to solve problems even after humans show them how to. 

A team of researchers tested cats to see if they could retrieve a piece of solid food from inside a drawer and a tube after watching humans do so. 

The experiment showed that cats did not imitate human behavior to solve problems, even if it meant obtaining a tasty treat. 

The team, led by Minori Arahori, a former Kyoto University researcher specializing in comparative cognitive science who currently works at Anicom Specialty Medical Institute Inc., considered ways to have cats participate in experiments.

While it is known that dogs and some other animals mimic human behavior, no studies had been conducted to see if cats also learn from humans.

The difference in how cats were domesticated and how they are reared by humans may have influenced their characteristics, the researchers said.

Humans can change their behavior effectively by watching how others behave, rather than learning through trial and error.

This ability is known as social learning.

In addition to dogs, horses and goats are known to use social learning to learn how to go around fences and deal with other situations.

For the cat experiment involving the drawer, the researchers used an instrument that was made with an acrylic box combined with a plastic tray.

The tray came with several wood sticks fixed parallel on it to help cats remove it from the box and obtain the reward by making scratching movements.

A total of 45 felines from homes and cat cafes were brought in to join the experiment on a volunteer basis.

Of these, 15 were omitted from the experiment because they had low motivation or showed no interest in the setup. 

The remaining 30 cats were divided into two groups. One group was given a demonstration by a researcher, while the other group was given no demonstration.

As a result, only two from the group that observed the human demonstration obtained the treat, while two from the other group also retrieved the food.

As for whether the cats touched the same parts of the drawer as the researcher did, the team also found no difference between the two groups.

In another experiment involving the tube, the team placed the prize in the transparent plastic tube, which measured 11 centimeters in diameter and 26 cm in length.

One group watched how a researcher retrieved the food by inserting her hand into the tube from one end, while the other group was given no demonstration.

When the team analyzed the behaviors of 40 cats that participated in the experiment, the members saw no difference in their actions, including whether they attempted to obtain the reward from the front of the tube.

The team said further research is necessary to determine whether cats exhibit social learning from humans because the latest study was conducted under limited conditions.

The researchers said the difference between dogs and cats can be attributed to the fact that while dogs that were loyal and obedient to humans were selected during the domestication process, there was no such selection for cats.

"Dogs are trained to be docile when they are kept as pets, but cats are not trained well," Arahori added. "I think the difference arising from how they are reared may also have influenced the results."

The team's findings were published in the online European magazine International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health at (https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/6/984).

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