Japanese researchers (Saho Takagi,Atsuko Saito,Minori Arahori,Hitomi Chijiiwa,Hikari Koyasu,Miho Nagasawa,Takefumi Kikusui,Kazuo Fujita & Hika Kuroshima ) has claimed that the mystery can be solved if cats can remember the names of their owners,friend cats and the other people. They conducted two experiments on 48 cats lived in a house or cat cafe together with at least two other pets.
Here we examined whether cats linked a human utterance and the corresponding object, using a relatively simple task that is applicable to many species: a visual-auditory expectancy violation task previously used to test cats’ ability to predict an object when hearing that objects’ name 24. As stimuli we used the names of other cats (“models”) cohabiting with the subjects in Exp.1, and human family members’ names in Exp.2. Cats were presented with the face of the other cat (Exp.1) or human (Exp.2) following presentation of the model’s name, called by the owner (Exp.1) or an experimenter (Exp.2). Half of the trials were “congruent,” i.e., the model’s face and name matched, whereas the other half were “incongruent” (the stimuli mismatched). Previous research showed that cats matched human photos and voices24, which established the validity of presenting photos as stimuli. Our hypothesis was that cats learned face–name relationships by observing interactions involving their owner, and that more such observations would lead to stronger learning.
We tested two groups of cats, differing in the number of other cats they lived with: cats belonging to cat cafés where many cats live together, and household cats. The latter probably have more opportunities to observe interactions between the owner and each of the other cohabitating cats, which might facilitate learning of the face–name relationship.
Therefore, we analyzed data from household cats and cat café cats separately in Exp.1. In Exp.2, analysis concerned the number of cohabiting family members because more members would have more opportunities to hear other members’ names (e.g., people living as a couple probably say each other’s name less often than people living in a larger family). In Exp.2 we considered length of time living with the family as well as the number of family members.
We made two predictions. First, attention toward the stimulus face displayed on the monitor should be longer in incongruent trials due to expectancy violation. Second, the amount of violation is related to the amount of exposure to relevant interactions; specifically, household cats should show stronger violation effects than café cats in Exp.1, and cats living in households with more people should show more evidence of expectancy violation in Exp.2."
Experiment 2
The procedure in Exp.2 was almost the same as in Exp.1, but we used human instead of cat stimuli. In view of likely differential exposure to name–face relationships depending on the number of people living together (for example, someone living with a single other person calls that person’s names less often than someone living with multiple others), we took this factor, along with length of time living together, into account in the analysis.
Materials and methods
Subjects
We tested 26 household cats (15 males and 11 females, mean age 5.2 years, SD 3.27 years) living in houses with more than two people. Thirteen cats lived with two-person families, seven with three-person families, four with four-person families, and two with five-person families. Durations of living together ranged between 6 and 180 months (mean 49.79 months, SD 41.50). We did not ask the owner to change water or feeding schedules.
Source: Takagi, S., Saito, A., Arahori, M. et al. Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives. Sci Rep 12, 6155 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10261-5
We made two predictions. First, attention toward the stimulus face displayed on the monitor should be longer in incongruent trials due to expectancy violation. Second, the amount of violation is related to the amount of exposure to relevant interactions; specifically, household cats should show stronger violation effects than café cats in Exp.1, and cats living in households with more people should show more evidence of expectancy violation in Exp.2."
Experiment 1
Materials and methods
Subjects
"We tested 48 cats (28 males and 19 females). Twenty-nine (17 males and 12 females, mean age 3.59 years, SD 2.71 years) lived in five “cat cafés” (mean number living together: 14.2, SD 10.01), where visitors can freely interact with the cats. The other 19 (11 males and 8 females, mean age 8.16 years, SD 5.16 years) were household cats (mean number living together: 6.37, SD 4.27). We tested household cats living with at least two other cats because the experiment required two cats as models. The model cats were quasi-randomly chosen from the cats living with the subject, on condition of a minimum period of 6 months cohabiting, and having different coat colors so that their faces might be more easily identified. We did not ask the owner to make any changes to water or feeding schedules.
Result: House cats attended for longer in the incongruent than the congruent condition, as predicted.
Materials and methods
Subjects
"We tested 48 cats (28 males and 19 females). Twenty-nine (17 males and 12 females, mean age 3.59 years, SD 2.71 years) lived in five “cat cafés” (mean number living together: 14.2, SD 10.01), where visitors can freely interact with the cats. The other 19 (11 males and 8 females, mean age 8.16 years, SD 5.16 years) were household cats (mean number living together: 6.37, SD 4.27). We tested household cats living with at least two other cats because the experiment required two cats as models. The model cats were quasi-randomly chosen from the cats living with the subject, on condition of a minimum period of 6 months cohabiting, and having different coat colors so that their faces might be more easily identified. We did not ask the owner to make any changes to water or feeding schedules.
We predicted that the longer the cat and human had lived together, the stronger the association between name and face would be, due to more opportunities to learn it."
Experiment 2
The procedure in Exp.2 was almost the same as in Exp.1, but we used human instead of cat stimuli. In view of likely differential exposure to name–face relationships depending on the number of people living together (for example, someone living with a single other person calls that person’s names less often than someone living with multiple others), we took this factor, along with length of time living together, into account in the analysis.
Materials and methods
Subjects
We tested 26 household cats (15 males and 11 females, mean age 5.2 years, SD 3.27 years) living in houses with more than two people. Thirteen cats lived with two-person families, seven with three-person families, four with four-person families, and two with five-person families. Durations of living together ranged between 6 and 180 months (mean 49.79 months, SD 41.50). We did not ask the owner to change water or feeding schedules.
The more the number of family members increased, the longer cats attended to the monitor in the incongruent compared to the congruent condition.
Our interpretation is that cats living with more people have more opportunities to hear names being used than cats living with fewer people, and that living with a family for a longer time increases this experience. In other words, the frequency and number of exposure to the stimuli may make the name–face association more likely."
Our interpretation is that cats living with more people have more opportunities to hear names being used than cats living with fewer people, and that living with a family for a longer time increases this experience. In other words, the frequency and number of exposure to the stimuli may make the name–face association more likely."
Source: Takagi, S., Saito, A., Arahori, M. et al. Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives. Sci Rep 12, 6155 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-10261-5
