A group of animal scientists from Azabu University in Japan have discovered through those experiments domestic cats Ordinary people can associate human words with pictures without needing to receive incentives or rewards. In his study, published in the journal Scientific Reportsthe team experimented with cats looking at pictures on a computer to see if they made connections between pictures and spoken words.
It is another step towards understanding how wild animals interpret the world around them. Others Previous research has shown that cats know when a person says their name.. Then, the animal responds differently to other sounds.
Some experiments have shown that they can also associate pictures of famous people with their names.
Cats can understand many words you say, not just their names.
But now, in this new study, researchers found that cats They can understand most words spoken to themnot just their names.
A domestic cat in front of a computer / AdobeStock
To find out if cats can associate a word with an object, the research team had the treatment of 31 older cats. Each of them was given a vocabulary test originally designed for the development of human infants.
Tests on the computer
The test consisted of showing them short videos on the computer, in which an object (the sun, a cloud) was visible and the voice of a person was also released from each image. The animals watched the video clip for a while, but then the scientists changed the combination of the picture and the sound to see if they noticed the change.
“We expected that if the cats made an association between the sound and the image, Then they notice the change, so their screen time can be longer” says the study. And, of course, that’s what happened, especially at the monitor where the human voice is heard. Not so on another project where electronic sound was released.
The experiment showed the ability of cats / Pixnio
This may indicate that these animals “associate things with human words” as opposed to computer words.
“These results show that cats are quick to form associations between pictures and abstract shapes, regardless of the type of sound,” adds Saho Takagi, lead author of the study, in a statement.
They learn faster than a human baby
Not only that, but cats can also form these image associations faster than even human babies.
Most cats develop “speech on screen” after spending four sessions in front of a computer, that is. they only received nine minutes of exposure in two trials to each picture. In a similar study with human infants, they received four 20-second sessions of two picture words. “Our results show this cats form associations with short periods of time”, said Takagi.
The study, the group shows that cats often associate the sounds they hear from people with things in their environment.
Reference lesson: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-74006-2
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