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.

Comments

No surprise

[redback]

This should come as no surprise to anyone who owns a cat.

My cats will come when they are called, if they feel like it. Sometimes they will run to the door then refuse to actually come in.

So yeah, they understand. They just probably dont give a shit about what you want.

Re:No surprise

[Joce640k]

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!".

Re:No surprise

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Of course they do

[WCMI92]

As anyone who has been owned by cats knows.