Cats may be able to understand a multitude of words – 25, 30, or even 50, according to studies carried out in recent years. One such study, conducted in France by researchers from the universities of Paris-Nanterre and Bordeaux and published in October, came to the conclusion that cats can understand human language, especially if these words are spoken by their owner and with very specific intonation.
In a paper published in the journal “Animal Cognition”, the researchers studied how 16 domesticated cats reacted to hearing the pre-recorded voice of their companion when the owner in question was speaking directly to them.
They then contrasted this with the cats’ reactions to pre-recorded audio of their owners speaking to another human. In this situation, the scholars found that the cats tended to react differently.
While 10 out of 16 cats showed decreased interest when a stranger called out their name, they became engaged again when the voice speaking to them was that of their human, with their ears twitching and spinning towards the source of the call, the animal moving around more and its eyes dilating.
Eight of those same cats again showed a loss of interest when they heard their human talk to another human – signified by the use of a human-directed tone – but again gained interest when they could tell the human was talking to them.
“Our results suggest that cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans,” the researchers wrote. “Interestingly, this pattern of discrimination was found only when sentences were uttered by the cats’ owners.
“Cats – not so long ago considered as independent and ungrateful creatures – are in fact very well capable of creating and fostering attachment bonds with humans. The fact that cats show a greater reaction when their humans specifically address them brings a new dimension to previous considerations of this reciprocal relationship.”
This comes on the back of other studies that demonstrate the close bond between humans and cats. Scientists from the research project TheyCanTalk, who have trained dogs and cats to communicate by pressing buttons that speak words, said last year that cats can be taught how to link specific words with things they want or need when communicating with humans.
The researchers even noted distinctions between how dogs and cats chose to communicate using the buttons for words such as “sit” and “hungry”.
“What’s interesting is that cats tend to not do much in the way of multi-button presses, [choosing instead] single-button presses,” cognitive scientist Leo Trottier told the online publication Salon.
“With cats, you have to find things they really want, and there are just fewer of those than with dogs.”
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