Post by jkeliar on Sept 22, 2017 15:46:24 GMT
Kuo's studies sound like they were focused around trying to condition a cat to not chase after a rat as a source of food, but I have not read up on them completely.
The results of this study topic would be of huge interest to behaviorist psychologists, as the results would go against the common idea of instincts, such as the well-known concept of the cat chasing the next level below it in it's food chain, the rat. This commonality is reinforced through media conceptualizations, such as the classic tv show Tom and Jerry, where it is always following how the cat (Tom) is always trying to catch the mouse (Jerry), through more ridiculous and crazy methods.
I do think that behaviorists would agree with Kuo, as their focus is that with enough conditioning there are a lot of possibilities. As for my own opinion on the instinct, I think it is like Schrödinger's Cat, as it can be both there and not there. It can be there if the cat is left without food and there are mice/rats in the area, the cat will most likely chase the mice to try and sustain it's life by eating them. However, I think with enough conditioning over generations of both cats and humans, they could be domesticated such as wolves were, and now we have men's best friend, the dog. That being said, it could also be there, but I'm not a cat, so I'll never know.
The results of this study topic would be of huge interest to behaviorist psychologists, as the results would go against the common idea of instincts, such as the well-known concept of the cat chasing the next level below it in it's food chain, the rat. This commonality is reinforced through media conceptualizations, such as the classic tv show Tom and Jerry, where it is always following how the cat (Tom) is always trying to catch the mouse (Jerry), through more ridiculous and crazy methods.
I do think that behaviorists would agree with Kuo, as their focus is that with enough conditioning there are a lot of possibilities. As for my own opinion on the instinct, I think it is like Schrödinger's Cat, as it can be both there and not there. It can be there if the cat is left without food and there are mice/rats in the area, the cat will most likely chase the mice to try and sustain it's life by eating them. However, I think with enough conditioning over generations of both cats and humans, they could be domesticated such as wolves were, and now we have men's best friend, the dog. That being said, it could also be there, but I'm not a cat, so I'll never know.