Okay! By popular demand. This week on behavior breakdown
we're going to take a look at Billi the cat. A cat that allegedly uses buttons to speak
English. I'm KP. A marine biologist who specializes in animal behavior.
A few weeks ago, I took a look at whether or not dogs could use buttons to speak English.
And if you missed it there's a link to that video right up here.
Last time, I was accused of cherry picking videos .
To be honest, I watched one video. Just one video at random. This time, I'll watch Billi's most popular
videos. Which i would assume should be the ones that best represent their case. This one's called
"Tell me your cat is a jerk without telling me your cat is a jerk." I like that. I agree with the title.
okay what do you want to
oh play goodness okay
you want to think
okay
I don't know what I'm supposed to be seeing here. So here's my issue, right?
The use of the button cuddle. We're supposed to assume that the cat wants to cuddle. The person sits
down to cuddle the cat. The cat immediately does not look like it wants to cuddle.
So then we assume that the use of the button no means that the cat has changed its mind. It
really wouldn't have mattered what button the cat pushed. If the cat pushed the treat button
and then wasn't interested in a treat the human would have assumed that the cat changed its mind.
And that is confirmation bias. I suspect there's another form of bias happening in
these videos but we'll get to that in a second. Let's finish this one.
you want oh you want the food mousey
okay
Which is the human pushing those buttons .
Yeah... I'm trying. I'm really trying you guys. Like, there's just nothing here. Like, nothing here.
Okay okay all right all right. "How many times do I have to tell you to come when called?" Billi Speaks
why baby
um why didn't i come before
I was gonna say something nice before before... that wild extrapolation. But, hmm, I was gonna say
the cat does appear to be more deliberate than the dogs who in my mind just seem to be walking up and
stomping on things. But I also think that's just the difference between cats and dogs. Cats always
look like they're thinking things through far more so than dogs. So, the bias I referenced
earlier is something called "anthropomorphic bias." And that's where we assign human behaviors or
ideas to animals. In all of these button videos, the animals push the buttons and the human
restructures the words coming out of the buttons to make a sentence with them and create meaning.
okay i was i was watering the plants billy i'm sorry
Okay, and then there's there's an asterisk here saying "anger" but if you hadn't seen the word anger
pop up on the screen and you were just watching a muted video of a cat you would have never said
that is an angry cat. Humans can recognize the behavioral cues for an angry cat. Arched back.
Hissing. Puffed up hair. We all know what angry cats look like and it's not this. Now, remember I'm not
disputing the fact that animals can communicate with you. In fact, that's my entire point. Animals
are communicating with us all the time using body language and a number of different things.
Just not buttons. I came soon before mom comes soon it didn't take that long
So see the cat keeps touching buttons and looking up at the owner.
The cat wants something. And i don't think that it matters what. If you gave the cat a toy? Happy cat.
You gave the cat a treat? Happy cat. You give the cat some ear scratches? Happy cat.
gonna go outside for a walk
is that what you want
If you are actually training an animal to associate an item or an idea even with a
specific button and a specific sound... you would press the button in congress with showing them
the object or the idea that you're associating that word with. Over and over again until the
animal understands the basic concept. But in these videos we're just clicking buttons there's
no association. There's no way for the cat to possibly understand what any of these things mean.
My other problem is that all of these buttons are so similar looking even to a human. And
these were designed by a human. I feel like the differences are so
subtle, so minute... I like this one button that is very large and has a big picture of Billi on
it. That's a very discernible button. But all of the other buttons look almost exactly the same.
is there a squirrel yeah it is
you're so selfie
definitely does not know we're coming
Hey! Look! Okay that demonstrates an understanding
of what the squirrel is saying! It said squirrel alarm call. Yes!
YES! We don't even need the buttons! We understand the squirrel way more than we understand the cat.
I just don't know what to tell you guys. Uh, for those that unequivocally believe in this, is there --
is there any scenario in which something would happen that would make you not believe it?
It's confirmation bias that's not true. Because I honestly see zero evidence. And, you know guys, I'm
not the only scientist who's skeptical about this. I'll post some links in the descriptions below. Let
me know what you think in the comments. And I'll catch you next time. I'm KP a marine biologist -- is that me?
Yep! I got nothing here.
Unfortunately, "I got nothing" is not a good YouTube video. *laughs*
Yeah, I don't - I don't see - We can watch another one. Should i watch another one?
I don't understand... The human understands how to use the buttons very well! One thing that I never
see happen in these videos is for the human to stop and go "okay, I think Billi is confused at this
point and is not understanding what we're doing." You never see that happening. That would of course
happen. Right? Like, if this were true --I'm going off obviously on a tangent here -- if this were true
if if the animals, if the dog the cat whatever, if it could learn to understand these sentences
there would of course be times -- just like when you or I were learning English -- that we got something
wrong. And that NEVER happens in these videos. Right? You understand how that doesn't make sense?