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Cats Can Recognize Their Own Names, Study Suggests (gizmodo.com)
AmiMoJo shares a report from Gizmodo: Plenty of cat owners will happily tell you their felines are capable of responding to their own names, but the scientific jury remains ambivalent on the matter. A fascinating new experiment suggests this might actually be true for some cats, and it's a capacity very much tied to the social environment in which the cat lives. The new research, published today in Scientific Advances, doesn't mean cats understand the human conception of a name, but it does show that at least some cats can distinguish their names from other words. Prior research has shown that cats can recognize human gestures, facial expressions, and vocal cues. Slashdot reader sciencehabit adds: Give this a shot at home: Say four random words to your cat -- separated by about 15 seconds -- with the same length and intonation as its name. Then say its actual name. If it swivels its ears or perks up its head, chances are it knows what you call it. That's essentially what researchers did in a new study. The scientists saw similar responses when the cat's name came after the names of other felines he lived with, or when a stranger spoke the words. The findings are the first to experimentally show that cats have some understanding of what we are saying to them, the team concludes.
I don't know. My girlfriend breeds them (Russian Blues)
We also have various other cats "boarded" at our place for periods of time due to her CFA connections.
I'm literally exposed to 10-11 cats a year, though never 3 or so at a time, for varying lengths of time. I.e., I have a *lot* of experience cohabitating with cats. A diverse selection of cats.
While cats certainly recognize words, I have seen little evidence that they're aware of their name.
If I call a cat by the treats, every cat that wants a treat comes running.
If I call a cat while on the couch, every cat that wants pets will come running.
If I call a cat while I'm in the bathroom, our one cat that fucking loves the shower will come running.
You could argue that as "they know I'm calling someone, but they don't give a fuck that it's not them"
But I read the article too, and they didn't discount for the possibility that they are simply recognizing that you're calling attention to yourself, which they may or may not be interested in, depending on the context, as opposed to making random noises.
In short, I think learn to interpret "names" as some cat meowing loudly because he wants something, which also depending on context, will send various other cats running toward it.
Animal smarts only ever surprises people who don't own animals.
My two cats definitely know their own names and they're not even the smartest cats I've ever owned.
More: They know the other cat's name, too. I once asked one of them where the other cat was (she was stuck in a cupboard - somebody closed the door) and he took me there pawed at the door, like saying, "She's in there!".
No sig today...
Not necessarily.
They are recognising a sound that normally precedes things of interest to them... usually food.
For all we know, they think "Tiddles" means "I'm opening up a tin of meat for you". It only has to correlate enough for them to think it's worth getting their attention diverted to see if there's food, not every time.
Now, I did teach my cats words. They understand what those words mean and how they differ. They don't always know their own name, for example, and will ignore you calling them upstairs by it (food isn't served upstairs, so why would I wake up and run all the way up there?.
I teach my cats the word "down"... which discourages them off furniture, shelves, stairs, places they shouldn't be. They tend to get that.
They don't need an explicit word for food, they tend to go by the sound of the food bag/tin being opened, but using their name does reinforce that. When you want them to approach, you can try the name but what piques their interest is chirpy sounds or holding out your fingers... both food-related enticements. They won't approach if they know you haven't got food, unless they want a stroke but that's usually a side-effect of wanting to sit on you or be fed.
Some of them learned that me patting my lap means they are welcome to jump up but they struggle even with that.
Let's stop anthropomorphising them... they are little wild animals that have been given a privileged environment that they will defend if necessary, accept our presence in because we are much larger and more dangerous than them, have become accustomed to us generally being amenable to them being present, sometimes scent-mark us (especially to remember who fed them, usually), act like kittens in such an environment, and respond almost entirely only to food-based enticements.
That's not a bad thing. It's called a pet.
Though it is said that the greatest, most natural, and most clear signal of any species in terms of offering of peace is to give food. That's why you shouldn't refuse offers of dinner in foreign countries. Giving somebody food is the biggest signal you can offer in terms of acceptance, non-threatening, friendliness, sharing of vital resources, etc.
I have two, they both look directly at me and meow at me when I say their individual names and don't meow at me when I say the others name or just make noises in general.
They do recognize their names, it's just a lot of cats don't give a shit what we want.