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Social referencing and cat–human communication

Overview of attention for article published in Animal Cognition, January 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#34 of 1,573)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
39 news outlets
blogs
8 blogs
twitter
30 X users
facebook
3 Facebook pages
video
2 YouTube creators

Citations

dimensions_citation
71 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
471 Mendeley
Title
Social referencing and cat–human communication
Published in
Animal Cognition, January 2015
DOI 10.1007/s10071-014-0832-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

I. Merola, M. Lazzaroni, S. Marshall-Pescini, E. Prato-Previde

Abstract

Cats' (Felis catus) communicative behaviour towards humans was explored using a social referencing paradigm in the presence of a potentially frightening object. One group of cats observed their owner delivering a positive emotional message, whereas another group received a negative emotional message. The aim was to evaluate whether cats use the emotional information provided by their owners about a novel/unfamiliar object to guide their own behaviour towards it. We assessed the presence of social referencing, in terms of referential looking towards the owner (defined as looking to the owner immediately before or after looking at the object), the behavioural regulation based on the owner's emotional (positive vs negative) message (vocal and facial), and the observational conditioning following the owner's actions towards the object. Most cats (79 %) exhibited referential looking between the owner and the object, and also to some extent changed their behaviour in line with the emotional message given by the owner. Results are discussed in relation to social referencing in other species (dogs in particular) and cats' social organization and domestication history.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 30 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 471 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Colombia 1 <1%
Germany 1 <1%
Unknown 468 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 225 48%
Student > Master 28 6%
Student > Ph. D. Student 26 6%
Researcher 23 5%
Other 22 5%
Other 41 9%
Unknown 106 23%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 227 48%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 57 12%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 37 8%
Social Sciences 9 2%
Engineering 5 1%
Other 25 5%
Unknown 111 24%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 379. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 November 2023.
All research outputs
#82,633
of 25,515,042 outputs
Outputs from Animal Cognition
#34
of 1,573 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#805
of 359,326 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Animal Cognition
#1
of 28 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,515,042 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,573 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 36.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 359,326 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 28 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.