A new study suggests household cats can respond to the sound of their own names. But Japanese scientists said Thursday that they’ve provided the first experimental evidence that cats can distinguish between words that we people say. Atsuko Saito of Sophia University in Tokyo says there’s no evidence cats actually attach meaning to our words, not even their own names. In four experiments with 16 to 34 animals, each cat heard a recording of its owner’s voice, or another person’s voice, that slowly recited a list of four nouns or other cat’s names, followed by the cat’s own name. Monique Udell, who also studies animal behavior at Oregon State, said the study shows “cats are paying attention to you, what you say and what you do, and they’re learning from it.”___

Source: Huffington Post April 04, 2019 15:11 UTC