Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/cats-know-names/

You would be surprised to discover that your cat recognizes not just your face, but also remembers your name!

A new study that was published in the journal Scientific Reports reveals these facts after conducting research on cats who have human owners and feline friends.

“We examined whether cats matched familiar cats’ names and faces… and human family members’ names and faces…” said the authors. “Cats were presented with a photo of the familiar cat’s face on a laptop monitor after hearing the same cat’s name or another cat’s name called by the subject cat’s owner… or an experimenter.”

They found that household cats tend to give attention to a monitor in front of them for a longer time if the face displayed on it did not match the name that they heard. The researchers explained that it was a sign that the cats were waiting for the “right” name to be spoken, and when this expectation did not get fulfilled the cats experience confusion.

On the other hand, cafe cats that were also included in the research did not exhibit similar reactions.

Hence, the researchers concluded that household cats know how to accurately associate a particular name with a particular face.

“These results indicate that only household cats anticipated a specific cat face upon hearing the cat’s name, suggesting that they matched the stimulus cat’s name and the specific individual,” explained the authors as they clarified the distinction between household cats and cafe cats who can interact with strangers but without the same level of intimacy.

They also added that these name-face relationships have been probably learned by household cats through observations of third-party interactions — a form of social learning, and not by a reward and punishment system.

“Cats basically do not engage in referential vocal communication within the same species, so this may be an ability seen in the evolutionary process from wildcats to cats,” said Saho Takagi, a research fellow specializing in animal science at Azabu University in Kanagawa Prefecture and the initiator of the study from her work at Kyoto University. “It may be the result of selection pressure to coexist with humans.”

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Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog