OPINIONS

My Super Genius CutyBoy

By Mrs. Hema C. Mohan
Dubai, UAE

Originally from Kerala, the extreme southwestern state in India, I now live with my family in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). On the 28th September 1998, I bought a twelve-week-old kitten from a Dubai pet shop that imports them from Europe. From the very beginning, it was apparent that despite being reclusive, indifferent, and always preferring in the dark corners of my flat, this cat seemed very intelligent. He never showed up except during mealtimes and all my attempts to befriend him were in vain. I continued my attempts by holding and caressing him in my hands but he always slithered away. As a trial to keep him held, while carrying, I used to show him items like a fan/light etc, with a 'tick' sound with my fingers and reciting the names of those items. He was pleased and did enjoy those 'rides'. Instead of slithering down, he stayed more time on my hands, watching each and every object I showed him. I saw curiosity in his expressive eyes, and so repeated the names of each object several times to him to familiarize him with these names.

His face seemed as if he had a grasp of what I had told him. I remembered what my father had explained to me as a child about Ivan Pavlov's experiments on conditioning animals, and so I decided to check the learning ability of my kitten, CutyBoy or simply just Cuty.

To my surprise, CutyBoy turned his head to face the items and looked at them steadily after being asked him them. I wanted to check his memory power. I took him to the other rooms of the flat and then to the neighbors' flats and verified his memorizing capacity. The tests were continued on other occasions and in varied environments. On every occasion, Cuty demonstrated his unique brain capacity, even though he was only sixteen weeks old. Much perseverance and patience were not necessary because he has a sharp grasping power to perceive things. The only effort I faced was removing the inhibition he showed on obeying my instructions. By one year he had learnt the names of all the items in my home. By then I realized that CutyBoy has language skill too and later I discovered his mathematical knowledge. Then only I realized that CutyBoy has super intelligence and knowledge in various areas. 

Then CutyBoy was tested by teachers, psychologists etc and they all verified his knowledge. Over the years, I have retained all the records with me. Also, I have kept a Guest book with the comments of our visitors. As many observed, CutyBoy's talents were versatile. Apparently he does not possess the CLEVER HANS EFFECT--which means he would fail to answer when the questioner is out of his view. Interestingly, CutyBoy can give the answer even if the questioner is in the next room. 

Below are some of the comments from those who have seen Cuty's abilities. I will then respond to their speculations.

Comments on CutyBoy

Behavioral Report of Cuty by Prof. Krishna Prasad Sreedhar M.A., Ph.D., D.M. & S.P., FIACP. Head of Psychology Department at Kerala University, India. Email: kpsridhar@sancharnet.in

As I was trained in measuring animal behavior at the Department of Human Development and Family Life of the University of Kansas at Lawrence on a Fulbright program, I devised a technique to measure the abilities of Cuty. The measurement was in terms of the three responses of Cuty:

1. Correct responses,
2. Incorrect responses, and
3. Responses that could not be considered neither correct nor incorrect or no responses coming forth.

The following three tests were given in a random order 6 times at a stretch with brief periods of rest in between:

1. Identifying household articles like TV, fan, air conditioner, flower vase etc.
2. Identifying numbers written on cards and placed in a semi circular way on top of the furniture.
3. Identifying colors similarly placed in the furniture.

In my experiments, Cuty was found to get correct answers approximately 75% of the time in all the three identification tasks.  According to Hema, Cuty failed 25% of the time because I was too impersonal and critical. However, I thought that these were the two essential conditions in any experimentation. Nevertheless, I must point out here that my instructors at the University of Kansas used to say that learning experiments with animals should take place in an atmosphere of warmth and acceptance.

Mr. Lali Khan, B.Tech, MBA, the Chief Executive Officer of UNESCO's Total Achievement Project (TAP), struck better results as he was very warm and accepting. He could get a higher percentage of correct responses from Cuty. 

At that stage I considered the responses of Cuty to be a result of learning by trials. However, Hema had two explanations for the 25% incorrect responses. She felt that Cuty used to become indifferent when he knows that he is being tested. She also strongly contested that Cuty became timid and tended to give incorrect responses in the presence of strangers. I do respect these explanations as animals can go wrong in their responses under impersonal (unfriendly) atmosphere as the one created by me. Mr.Lali Khan says, "I am of the opinion that this cat does have exceptional skills which requires further study, documentation and analysis."

Hema has records of unbelievable feats by Cuty including the records of a language teacher who tested Cuty that showed he recognized the meanings of difficult words. Identifying not so easily identifiable fractions of numbers was also tested. In addition, when asked about God, Cuty looked upwards.

However, limitations of my study were:

1. Cuty was a very sluggish cat which preferred to avoid responding and liked to be in the dark corners of the room.
2. According to me it was a low responding cat and needed prodding.
3. The responses were in the form of looking at the correct answers while the cat was in the hands of Hema with the cat in a leg upright position. Though my closest examination did not detect any sleight of hands by Hema, the possibility of her giving unconscious clues with the hand could not be completely ruled out. But the question remains as to how Cuty could respond correctly when Hema did not know the answer. If such tests were done, I would diagnose Cuty as a case of intuitions or pre-rational learning and not learning by trial and error or learning by insight.
   
   Intuitions are reported by some western animal watchers. Dr. Rupert Sheldrake reports of a cat which runs to the telephone when the telephone rings when the master calls home from some place. However the cat ignored the rest of the telephone rings.

Anil Kumar Vijavan from the Gulf Today, Sarjah, UAE:
I have seen the feline genius CutyBoy in action several times. The first time was in May 2001. He was tested for his arithmetic and language skills, identifying people and concealed objects. In all these areas he performed convincingly. There is something about CutyBoy which makes you think that you are dealing with a person and not a cat. He has expressive eyes. The beholder cannot miss their intensity. He is also very reclusive with a said air about him. At the slightest chance he slinks away to be by himself but through his unique way of saying YES, he indicated that he wants to be famous. He also denied being a cat and indicated that he wants to be known as a human cat. All this was incredibly strange because one never expects animals to know the meaning of abstract things like fame. I was told he has strong likes and dislikes. He performs only when he is convinced that the onlooker trusts his ingenuity. He shuns skeptics and mockers. Similarly he does not look favorably at noisy children. He displays a kind of possessiveness about his mother "Hema."

Dolphy Melvin Sequera writes:
I think it [CutyBoy] is the 8th wonder of the world.

Sabader , secondary math teacher in Al-Maged English School (Dubai):
Really marvelous he [CutyBoy] is! I taught thousands of students and observed their talents but never saw a cat do as a clever boy does. I tested Cutyboy and found that he had 75-85% correct answers.

Dr. Sumangala Amma., Retired Professor, Medical College, Trivandrum, Kerala State, India:
I asked Cuty five specific questions, of which he answered 4 correctly and refused to answer the fifth question. Overall, he was very cooperative and friendly.

Dr. Usha Ravindran, BDS, AEGD from Bombay, India
CutyBoy answered all the questions I asked him correctly. I am totally baffled and amazed at this display. No rational explanations comes to mind regarding his talents. All said and done, he is an adorable entity.

Dr. Veena Suman., Optalmologist from Abu Dhabi, UAE
CutyBoy is soooo wonderful!! He is full of knowledge. He knows everything. Loving and cute. We can learn from him so many things.

Dr. Prem Prakash, homeopathic consultant from Kerala, India:
There are so many things which some cannot explain, that does not mean that its not true. Cuty you are cute.

Now I wish to respond to some questions raised about Cuty's behaviour:

• Why does Cuty make mistakes when anyone tries to record his performance with a pen?

Cuty is always happy to perform in front of visitors. He is willing to perform even while strangers are present (Most of our visitors are quite new to Cuty and myself). He never made a mistake till this day. But, if anyone holds a PEN/PENCIL to tabulate the marks while Cuty performs, he gets irritated and purposely makes mistakes.

Suppose you prepared a list of "names of house hold items" and asking Cuty to identify the things you ask. If you hold a PEN/PENCIL, Cuty definitely will make 20 to 25 % mistakes and if you repeat the same tests without holding the PEN/PENCIL, Cuty will then score 100%.  The teachers who have verified this behavior, concurred that he does not like humans to rate his super intelligence!

• Responding to Dr. Krishna Prasad Sreedhar disagreement that "Cuty becomes timid and tends to give incorrect responds in the presence of strangers."

Cuty is very timid, but he never ignores strangers who visit him. For hours, he stays comfortably on the hands of some visitors during their first visit and will not allow me to take him from them, while he never likes to be held by me or any one of my family for more than a few minutes. Interestingly, Cuty understands the languages the visitors speak which I don't understand. I have very rarely seen him patting their faces with his right-paw.

• What are the conditions whereby Cuty does not like to perform?

1. He ignores skeptics, until they accept him.
2. He will not give the answers in noisy conditions (Radio, TV, people talking, etc.).
3. He will not respond if the visitor is angry with me or jealous of me.
4. He will perform with reluctance in the presence of kids who are misbehaving.
5. He performs with reluctance if the visitors call him saying "cat."
6. He will give 75 to 85 % correct answers if anyone around him is tabulating his scores with a pen/pencil. However, Cuty scores full marks if no one no one tries to write down his scores.

Mrs. Hema C. Mohan can be reached at her email: hanchan9@hotmail.com

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