It turns out that the cat learns the owner's words and recognizes the name of the cat living together

Cats may behave as if they understand human language, but it is not scientifically clear whether cats can understand human language. According to the research results newly released by Kyoto University, cats are learning the names of cohabiting cats in their daily lives. This finding shows that cats identify and learn human conversations.

Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives | Scientific Reports
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10261-5

Cats learn the names of their friends' cats in their daily lives | Kyoto University
https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/research-news/2022-04-25-0

The research team selected 'cats kept at home' and 'cats kept in cat cafes' to see if they understand the face correspondence between the names of their owners and the names of other cats living with them. Conducted an experiment on the subject. When the 'voice calling the name of the owner or the cat living together' is played with the cat sitting in front of the monitor, and the human / cat that matches the name is displayed on the monitor, and the human / cat that does not match is displayed. I observed the reaction of.

As a result of the experiment, it was found that the cats kept at home keep looking at the monitor for a long time when the picture of the cat that does not match the called cat is displayed on the monitor. Because cats tend to watch the event when 'an event different from what was expected' occurs, 'I expected that the cat whose name was called would be displayed, but a different cat was displayed. , I watched it. ' From this result, the research team found that 'at least cats that are multi-headed at home recognize the name of their' friend 'who lives with them, and when they hear that name, they predict the face of that individual. '.

Furthermore, it turned out that cats that have been bred for a long time and are bred in a large number of households continue to see 'photographs of humans that do not match the name they are called' for a long time. This result suggests that learning the name of a human family may be related to the frequency of hearing the name.

Saho Takagi, a member of the research team, said, 'It is said that research on cats lags significantly behind research on dogs. From this research, cats live with nature in communication with humans. It turns out that I remember the name. This is something that cats can't do without paying attention to their conversations with humans, even when they're not spoken to. Cats don't seem to listen to humans. I want to tell the world that I'm actually listening to it. I'm glad to reveal another wiseness of the cat. '