For all the lovers of cats and of books about cats from Scientific American:
Cats are notorious for their indifference to humans: Almost any owner will testify to how readily these animals ignore us when we call them. But according to a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports, domestic cats do recognize their own names—even if they walk away when they hear them.
Atsuko Saito, a behavioral scientist at the University of Tokyo, previously showed that cats can recognize their owners’ voices. In her latest study she narrowed this down, investigating whether they respond to hearing their names. The study included 78 cats from Japanese households and a “cat café.” (Such cafés, where patrons can interact with felines, are popular in Tokyo and have started to catch on in London and New York.)
During their experiments Saito and her colleagues used what behavioral psychologists call the habituation-dishabituation method. This involves repeatedly exposing a subject to a stimulus (in this case a spoken word) until the subject no longer displays any reaction. Then the subject is presented with a test stimulus (in this case, its name), and researchers observe whether it reacts. This step helps rule out responses to random stimuli.
For the new study, the scientists first had cat owners repeatedly say four words that were similar to their cats’ names, until the cats habituated to those words. Next the owners said the actual names, and the researchers looked at whether individual cats (when living among other cats) appeared able to distinguish their monikers. The cats had more pronounced responses to their own names—moving their ears, heads or tails, or meowing—than to similar words or other cats’ names.
Then the researchers had people unfamiliar to the cats speak the names, to test whether the cats still recognized them. Although their responses were less prominent than when their owners called them, they still appeared to recognize their names after being habituated to other words.
. . . .
Saito says she thinks feline pets learn to recognize their names because of what is in it for them. “I think cats associated their names with some rewards or punishments,” she says—adding that she thinks it is unlikely the cats understand their names are attached to them.
. . . .
“Cats are just as good as dogs at learning,” Bradshaw says. “They’re just not as keen to show their owners what they’ve learned.”
Link to the rest at Scientific American
Recognizing that repeating sounds refer to them is a nice achievement for japanese cats. But we’ve seen other cats open doors…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYFIV5NV7m4
…and I know one that opens dual-pane sliding windows.
For that matter, his sister knows when it’s time for the “butler” to go off to bed and reminds him in no uncertain terms when it’s time.
One of my cats learned how to get in my second-floor bedroom window. She’d climb a large oak tree in front of the apartment building, jump onto the roof, cross over to the building that was next to mine (in an L shape), leap from that roof to my air conditioner in the window, then push in the pasteboard that was keeping the bugs (or wind) out.
In the wintertime, I was terrified she’d slip off if it was icy. Never did. She was all of six pounds, too, a gorgeous tortie.
If anything, cats seem to be pretty good problem solvers, which is the most common definition of IQ. They also know their limits: they don’t chase things they can’t catch, like cars or their tails. 😀
Cars, yes. Tails? My Siamese/Tabby former feral chases her tail nearly every day. It never fails to make me laugh. She catches it, too. 🙂
Sounds like she chases it because she can catch it.
When the window opener gets bored he swipes at his sister’s tail. She moves it out of the way until she gets tired of the game and goes off to nap and hide.
Dogs can be funny too, but cats are quieter.
I will say most dogs I know don’t hide around corners waiting to pounce and swipe your calves.
Friend of mine had a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Now those are dogs with a wicked sense of humor. He liked to take something that he knew would get a reaction, like my niece’s favorite doll. “MOMMY! Worf stole my dolly!” would bring friend and me out to capture the dog and take the doll back. He wanted to be chased; it’s how Ridgies like to play.
Found a link: http://www.yourish.com/archives/2005/apr10-16_2005.html#2005041002
He used to steal my sneakers out of the guest room when I stayed over. He watched me unpack one day and I pushed my sneakers all the way under the bed, laughed at him, and left the room with the door open. Two minutes later, he was out with one of my sneakers in his jaws.
One of my favorite pictures is him with my favorite denim shirt. Yep, he stole that, too, to get me to chase him.
A cute one.
My sister has five right now.
Biggest in Coco, solid bronze. Thinks she’s a puppy.
A…minor…problem since she’s 134 lbs.
Wow. Five. Two were more than enough. And wow, that’s a big one.
Yeah.
These are mostly rescues.
Coco and Ghost are from the litter of a pregnant rescue. Ten. She found homes for eight. She’s active in that space…
http://www.saveasato.org
…and a soft touch.
Before that she also had five but they were purebred schnauzers. Last one died a few months before she got the new menagerie. When she moves to a new job first thing she looks at it the back yard and fencing. Then she worries about the interior.
The posse is a handful but Coco isn’t much of a problem. It’s the small ones.
Thing about cats is that as long as they learn not to scratch the furniture or carpeting they’re generally low maintenance and only demand staff attention a few times a day. Or when they see a keyboard…
Makes you wonder if these researchers need proof that humans recognize there own names.
And just for the record, when I first got my cat as a kitten, I’m sure he thought for the longest time that his name was STOP THAT.
More than just names. I’ve taught mine “beat it,” “get down,” “Go lick Meimei’s [Gracie’s] ears,” “Bop Tim on the head,” “Want to go out?” “Are you hungry?” and many more.
The funniest thing was “Bop Tim on the head,” and it wasn’t even my cat. A friend had two tuxedos, Tim and Walter. Everyone loved Walter. Tim annoyed everyone. Walter was lying on the sofa, paws facing out, as Tim passed right under him. “Walter, bop Tim on the head,” I said, expecting nothing. He whacked his brother with his paw. The room burst into laughter. After that, anytime I told him to, he would walk over to Tim and bat him on the head.
Can’t explain it, but it never failed to make us laugh.
One gets the sense that the researchers were not cat-owners.
Sorry, Athena T. Cat says I need to correct that to “were not cat wait-staff.”
There’s a reason that “puss, puss, puss” is the universal calling sound for cats — distinctive and carries well. As a call-to-dinner/attention, everyone understands it.
On the other hand, most mixed cat/dog households (in my experience) end up speaking “cat” to all. Terms such as “scuss!” will even work on horses who are in the way.
One of our strays will allow me to pet it in the morning as I’m bringing out the food for the day.
After the food is in the tray forget it – can’t get within ten feet.
And this joker just figured out that they can learn to understand some words? 😛
Mine thinks “Muppet” means “food.”
File this under “idiotic things our taxes go to study so some manchild can be a professional student.”
In this case, Japanese taxpayers, so not my problem…
Nailed it!
Four cats in our house, and each one knows their own name and reacts to their unique name. However, I think they also know the others’ names, because we can tell them to get one of the others (in play) and, if they do want to play, they’ll go find that friend or they’ll look to the other cat.