Cats know how to recognize their names

A new study indicates that domestic cats know how to recognize the sound of their names.

But this is not a surprise for most of those who have cats. However, Japanese scientists said on Thursday that they had the first experimental evidence that kittens could distinguish words from people.

Then there is a similarity to dogs, whose communication with people is much more studied, and it is proven that they can recognize hundreds of words if they are highly trained.

Atsuko Saito, from Sofia University in Tokyo, states that there is no evidence that words have meaning for cats, not even their names. However, kittens learned that when they heard their names, they often rewarded them with food or games, or that something unpleasant was waiting for them, such as going to the vet.

And as they hear their names quite often, this sound has become something special, even if they do not understand that it corresponds to their identity.

Saito and colleagues describe the results of their research in the publication Scientific reports. In four experiments with between 16 and 34 animals, each cat heard a recording with the voice of its owner or that of another person, who was slowly reciting a list of four names or the name of other cats, then the name of the cat itself. .

In their initial reaction, many cats moved their head, ears and tail, but gradually lost interest in reading the words. The crucial question was whether they would react more strongly to his name.

Indeed, on average, these cats have shown interest when they heard their names.

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