Visual Discrimination in the Cat As a Function of Test Item Complexity and Method of Training

Abstract

Three experiments were performed to determine the effect of figure complexity on discrimination performance. In Experiment 1, domestic cats were trained using a successive training method to discriminate vertical mirror image pairs of asymmetric 4-, 8-, and 12-sided figures. In Experiment 2, the same subjects were trained using a concurrent training method to discriminate novel pairs of figures similar to those of Experiment 1. Test results from both experiments showed that (a) visual discrimination performance of the cat was facilitated with test items of greater figure complexity and (b) the concurrent training method was more efficient. In Experiment 3, experimentally naive cats were trained using a concurrent training method to discriminate seven test item pairs. The test items were vertical mirror image pairs of asymmetric 4-, 8-, 12-, 16-, and 22-sided figures as well as horizontal versus vertical stripes and upright versus inverted equilateral triangles. Percentages of correct performance for the figures composed an inverted U function with a peak at the 8-sided figure pair. Furthermore, supportive evidence was found for the common assumption that equilateral triangle and stripe discriminations are relatively easy tasks for the cat.