The popular belief that cats are very much theirs is very true. It is not that they are surly, in fact there are cats more affectionate and attached to their humans than many dogs (and people), it is that if they do not feel like doing something, they will not undertake it, for example, go to the call of their owner . And yes, you know what it’s called but it passes over you.
This is not what we say, it is the conclusion reached by a team of scientists from the University of Tokyo , after conducting a series of experiments with 78 felines seeking to find out if the kittens were able to differentiate their own names from other words.
The group of cats in the experiment consisted of kittens from different households and from a cat cafe. The researchers tried to test the hypothesis that the animals were able to recognize their name as distinct from other words, since it could be associated with rewards such as food, petting and play.
“To test the hypothesis, we present four different words in series as habituation stimuli, then we present the names of the cats as test stimuli,” explain the authors, led by evolutionary psychologist Atsuko Saito, in their paper.
“If cats were used to the other four words and uninhabited to their names, a rebound response would be observed to the presentation of their proper names, indicating the ability to discriminate their names from other words.”
As part of the experiment, the scientists played recordings of the cats in which their names were spoken after reproductions of other nouns and the proper names of other cats. The response of the kittens was filmed to observe if they moved their head, ears, tail, made any movement or vocalization. It was also tested whether the animals were familiar with the people who were talking: the researchers, that they would be humans unknown to them and their owners, that they would be known, and that they had recorded themselves playing with cats.
The results of these experiments suggested that most of the time the kittens distinguish between their own names and other words, even if they are very similar terms and regardless of whether the person who pronounces their name is a known or unknown person.
According to Atsuko Saito, a cat passing you when you call is nothing personal. “Cats are not evolved to respond to human signals,” Saito told New Scientist. ” They will communicate with humans whenever they want. That’s the cat .”
Tips for naming your kitten
And speaking of cat names … have you just adopted one and don’t know how to put it? As general advice, we recommend that the chosen word be short, that it does not exceed three syllables; that is not a term that you use often or that it resembles a sound or noise . In addition, the whole family must agree to always call you the same way.
