It was already known that the cats knew their names, but it remained a mystery whether they knew the names of those around them. A team of researchers from Kyoto University in Japan has tried to find out if cats know the names of other cats as well as the names of their owners. In the first experiment, a total of 48 cats were recruited (29 living in a cafeteria and 19 were pets) and the cats were given a photograph of a cat they lived with. At the same time, a stranger was saying either the cat’s real name or another, completely irrelevant, name. The cat’s response was monitored to see if it was confused with the wrong name and, if it was, would look at the image for longer, confused about the discrepancy. This, scientists say, is a clear sign that the cat knows the real name of the animal depicted.
“Expectation breach effect”
“Domestic cats have been paying close attention to the monitor for longer when shouting the wrong name, indicating a ‘breach of expectation,’” the researchers wrote in their study, published in the journal Scientific Reports. This experiment was then repeated but with photographs of the owners of 26 newly collected cats that participated in the second phase of the study. “This study provides evidence that cats link a partner’s name to the corresponding person without explicit training,” the researchers said. The strength of the connection was stronger for feline colleagues than for humans, but researchers are confident that cats have some ability to learn the names of their owners. Various factors affect how likely a cat is to remember the name of its people, including the size of the family in which it lives and how long it has been with the family. The bigger the family and the longer they are with the team, the more likely they are to remember a name. “Our interpretation is that cats that live with more people are more likely to hear names being used than cats that live with fewer people, and that living with a longer family increases this experience,” say the researchers. “In short, domestic cats matched at least the names and faces of their companion cats, and possibly the names of their human family members. “This is the first proof that domestic cats connect their human expressions and social references through everyday experiences.”
Further studies are required
But while experts are convinced that cats have shown talent in names, they do not yet know how to learn them. “These results suggest that cats can understand who is talking to whom in everyday situations. However, it is not yet clear how cats learned the name-person relationship. “Further study should address this point.” “We found that cats recognize at least one cat companion name and possibly the name of a human family member. One might ask what motivates cats to remember names. “One possible explanation has to do with competition. For example, a cat may receive food when its owner shouts its name but not when it shouts another cat’s name. “The fact that humans probably do not compete with cats may explain the weaker link between human names and faces. In conclusion, domestic cats linked at least two “names” given by man to two roommates.
