If It Fits, I Sits: Perceptual Scaling of Cardboard Boxes by Domestic Cats
Andrew McNutt (University of Utah), Whiskers McGraph (Institute of Feline Visualization), Alexander Rind (University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten), Johannes Knittel (Harvard University), Alex Bock (Linköping University), Hilson Shrestha (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Zhen Li (Tianjin University), Harry Li (MIT Lincoln Laboratory)
Presentation
- Session
- Test Session: Bluesky Posting and Moderation Trial
- Time
- Monday, Oct 19, 16:05 – 16:25 (US/Eastern) · session 16:00 – 16:45
- Room
- Hall St. George A-B
Links
Sign in to access the Paper PDF.
Abstract
Humans judge area poorly, but cats appear to judge it with confidence and in the wrong direction. We present a controlled study with 42 cats and 126 cardboard boxes. Cats selected the smallest box in 91% of trials, including 37 trials where the box was smaller than the cat. We model this behavior with a power law of exponent -0.7 and discuss the implications for the design of box-based visual encodings.