They may seem distant and indifferent to what we do, but cats actually pay close attention when we talk and can even beat babies in a word association game, a study suggests.
A small team of animal scientists at Azabu University in Japan has found that common domestic cats are able to link human words to pictures without being prompted or rewarded.
They enlisted the help of 31 adult domestic cats, who were given a word test originally designed for babies.
All participants watched two short cartoons played on a laptop screen, and a different made-up word accompanied each clip.
A cat watched each cartoon a maximum of eight times. They had a short break before being shown the videos again, but some included the nonsense word “wrong.”
Common domestic cats are able to link human words to images without being prompted or rewarded (stock image)
In fact, cats pay close attention when we talk and can even beat babies in a word association game (file image)
Analyzes showed that the cats appeared visibly perplexed and spent around a third more time looking at the screen when the wrong word was said.
The authors said they believe this shows that they had learned to link the original sentences with the images they had seen.
Previous studies suggest that babies behave similarly, but take longer to make connections between words and pictures: they need to watch the original cartoons 16 to 20 times.
Author Saho Takagi said, “Cats pay attention to what we say in everyday life and try to understand us more than we realize.”
The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
More than 30 adult domestic cats each received a word test originally designed for babies (file image)