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Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology

Play in domestic cats has been largely studied using a contextual approach, i.e., with a focus on what the cat is playing with, such as an object, itself or another cat. Such classification may be superficially attractive scientifically but it limits the ability to investigate function. We propose c...

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Autores principales: Gajdoš Kmecová, Noema, Pet'ková, Barbara, Kottferová, Jana, Skurková, Lenka, Mills, Daniel S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8343019/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34368287
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.712310
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author Gajdoš Kmecová, Noema
Pet'ková, Barbara
Kottferová, Jana
Skurková, Lenka
Mills, Daniel S.
author_facet Gajdoš Kmecová, Noema
Pet'ková, Barbara
Kottferová, Jana
Skurková, Lenka
Mills, Daniel S.
author_sort Gajdoš Kmecová, Noema
collection PubMed
description Play in domestic cats has been largely studied using a contextual approach, i.e., with a focus on what the cat is playing with, such as an object, itself or another cat. Such classification may be superficially attractive scientifically but it limits the ability to investigate function. We propose consideration of a psychobiological approach, which increases attention on hypotheses about the motivational and emotional state of the actors, may be more valuable. This may be particularly important in the case of intercat exchanges that might involve play, for example when one cat may chase another which does not want to be chased, the general interaction should not be considered playful. Key to improving the scientific study of such interactions is the need to adopt a common terminology, thus we synthesise a common ethogram from the published literature. Secondly at the heart of a psychobiological approach is a consideration of both the affective state and motivational goal of each actor in an interaction, since they may not be congruent, and recognition of the hypothetical nature of any such functional classification. However, this bottom up approach provides valuable insights that can be tested. We argue that when one cat treats another as an object or prey, such activity relates to the former cat seeking to learn about its own skills in relation to manipulating its physical environment (prey are not considered part of the complex social relationships and thus social environment of an individual). However, when interaction between cats is reciprocal it may function to facilitate social learning and may be best described as mutual social play. It needs to be recognised that interactions are dynamic and thus our classification of a situation needs to be flexible. So mutual social play may turn into a form of non-reciprocal interaction. We conclude by outlining priorities for future research to help us improve our ability to answer the question “Are these cats playing?” in a wider range of contexts.
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spelling pubmed-83430192021-08-07 Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology Gajdoš Kmecová, Noema Pet'ková, Barbara Kottferová, Jana Skurková, Lenka Mills, Daniel S. Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science Play in domestic cats has been largely studied using a contextual approach, i.e., with a focus on what the cat is playing with, such as an object, itself or another cat. Such classification may be superficially attractive scientifically but it limits the ability to investigate function. We propose consideration of a psychobiological approach, which increases attention on hypotheses about the motivational and emotional state of the actors, may be more valuable. This may be particularly important in the case of intercat exchanges that might involve play, for example when one cat may chase another which does not want to be chased, the general interaction should not be considered playful. Key to improving the scientific study of such interactions is the need to adopt a common terminology, thus we synthesise a common ethogram from the published literature. Secondly at the heart of a psychobiological approach is a consideration of both the affective state and motivational goal of each actor in an interaction, since they may not be congruent, and recognition of the hypothetical nature of any such functional classification. However, this bottom up approach provides valuable insights that can be tested. We argue that when one cat treats another as an object or prey, such activity relates to the former cat seeking to learn about its own skills in relation to manipulating its physical environment (prey are not considered part of the complex social relationships and thus social environment of an individual). However, when interaction between cats is reciprocal it may function to facilitate social learning and may be best described as mutual social play. It needs to be recognised that interactions are dynamic and thus our classification of a situation needs to be flexible. So mutual social play may turn into a form of non-reciprocal interaction. We conclude by outlining priorities for future research to help us improve our ability to answer the question “Are these cats playing?” in a wider range of contexts. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-07-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8343019/ /pubmed/34368287 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.712310 Text en Copyright © 2021 Gajdoš Kmecová, Pet'ková, Kottferová, Skurková and Mills. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Gajdoš Kmecová, Noema
Pet'ková, Barbara
Kottferová, Jana
Skurková, Lenka
Mills, Daniel S.
Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology
title Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology
title_full Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology
title_fullStr Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology
title_full_unstemmed Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology
title_short Are These Cats Playing? A Closer Look at Social Play in Cats and Proposal for a Psychobiological Approach and Standard Terminology
title_sort are these cats playing? a closer look at social play in cats and proposal for a psychobiological approach and standard terminology
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8343019/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34368287
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.712310
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