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Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives

386 points by michaelwm 4y ago

rcarmo 4y ago
"Analysis: One cat completed only the first trial before escaping from the room and climbing out of reach." I quite enjoyed this bit.
- zwieback 4y ago
  That and the fact that the statistics don't seem very crisp says everything you need to know about cats. Anecdotally I can confirm that my cats know each others names, not sure if they would recognize on a monitor though.
  - throwanem 4y ago
    Oh, I don't know. If wasps can recognize one another's faces - and they can! - I don't see any reason in principle why cats, who have orders of magnitude more neurons to work with, shouldn't be able to recognize images of one another.
sparsely 4y ago
Scanning the paper the effect seems surprisingly weak (and has p=0.045!) and weirdly dependent on family size (it looks as thought he difference only exists in larger families). While the results seem believable I'm not convinced by the results as presented.
deleted 4y ago
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aasasd 4y ago
Okay, but: > The other 19 were household cats (mean number living together: 6.37) This means the number of cats, right? Since it's contrasted to the cafe cats. So these are basically three families with six or seven cats each. The question being: how was it easier to find three such families than a bunch of families with three cats? What kind of place is that? I mean, sure it's Japan but still.
WalterBright 4y ago
I found a book entitled "Electronics for Cats" stuffed under The Cat's bed. Should I be concerned?
- throwanem 4y ago
  Nah, not till you find your favorite iron there too. My guy never quite got the hang of the temperature control, always cooked the hell out of my tips. (That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it...) But I do have to give him that his joints were usually better than mine.
4oo4 4y ago
I can definitely attest to this, I have two brother cats, and usually calling one of their names gets the other's attention to, as if to say "oh I see how it is, you invite him and not me". I'm also really happy this is empirically validated, its's so easy to notice things like this and wonder if you're crazy.
dghughes 4y ago
My cat knows when I am talking "cat talk" to another cat. She lifts her head up as if to let me know she knows what's going on. I feed a wild cat I've called Dorian since he's grey, he's lost an eye so I may rename him Doran. My cat may know the name but she knows the tone of my voice for sure.
ogma 4y ago
eimrine 4y ago
What if I never call my cat by name but call it as ksksksksksks? Friend cat ought to understand who is called but seems that is more about my voice then about names.
- purerandomness 4y ago
  "Names" are just our arbitrary label for "a voice, forming a certain sound"
nerdjon 4y ago
I am both surprised and not surprised by this. It does kinda make sense, I have 2 cats (from the same litter and have been together their entire lives. 14 yo now). They each clearly respond to their name and not their brothers name. Or at least respond differently, but I have noticed they look up sometimes if I call one and not the other (but won't run up to me). I have long though it was them responding to the "pet voice" that we all seem to use. But if this was the case that explains it better.
- phkahler 4y ago
  My can knows the names of all family members and can sometimes respond appropriately to "where's mom, go find mom". This is of course only if she wants something and came to me for it.
  - nerdjon 4y ago
    I have definitely noticed that. The cat I had growing up we had a close bond. He stayed with my parents though when I moved out. Any time I was coming to visit my parents would mention my name and he would perk up. I don't think it is tied to anything I gave him because I wasn't really taking care of him, I was rarely the one that fed him. He just slept on my bed and we spent a lot of time together. So there has to be some understanding there of... something. I am curious what they internalize it as. On the flip side I have to wonder. I live alone. My cats have very rarely actually heard my name. I would be very surprised if they had any concept of what my name was. But if they don't, do they think something different. It is interesting.
    - bombcar 4y ago
      I wonder if they pick it up by what draws your attention - so they may assume your name is texting sound or phone ring if that's all they ever see you react directly to.
      - nerdjon 4y ago
        huh I didn't think about that. I think we can fairly safely assume that them knowing their name is not an understanding of language and is just a recognition of a sound. At least based on any research that has been able to be done. So that would make sense in a way. And does lead to some... funny thoughts on what they may think my name is.
zdw 4y ago
I wonder if this is the first time a cat cafe has meaningfully contributed to scientific discourse.
- CaptArmchair 4y ago
  I'll one up you one. F.D.C Willard was an accomplished published physicist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
Cats have friend cats? I'm surprised. This seems like the exception rather than the rule. Seems to me like most cats prefer a life without other cats around... with human caretakers and all the comforts they provide... kept all to themselves. In my almost-50 years I think I've only met "cats with cat friends" a handful of times. Even when we had a pair of sibling cats that "liked" each other, when one of them died the other actually seemed "happier" after, which is kind of sad and dark.
- devmor 4y ago
  In nature, cats form colonies where they take communal care of the young, old and infirm. One of the core behaviors of cats is hunting and providing for colony members who are too weak to do so. Cats being "solitary" animals is largely a misunderstanding of cat behavior towards humans due to cat affection being expressed differently than dog affection.
  - nerdjon 4y ago
    I have had cats nearly my entire life. I love dogs but I am a cat person. All of the cats in my life have been loving social pets. I hate when the idea that cats can't bond, isn't loving, all of the stereotypes of cats are thrown around. Because they are just wrong. I do think a fair amount of it is not knowing how to properly socialize a kitten. But even a socialized cat will never be as affectionate as a dog. Or at least not the way a dog shows it. But I have 2 cats, they will sometimes sleep in different rooms and sometimes cuddle up basically on top of each other. They almost every night will sleep in my bed or at the very least will sleep on the cat tree next to me. I have noticed that when I have had to take one of my cats for an extended stay at the vet the other is noticeably... different. I don't want to assign an emotion since their emotions are different. But he is not himself. This often starts when I put one cat in a carrier. They seem to know when I am in a mood and really need that affection. But I also acknowledge that a cat isn't for everyone. Some people need that constant unquestionable affection that a dog gives you. Cats are more subtle.
    - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
lngnmn2 4y ago
No. They just associate repeated sounds, without any semantic whatsoever, just like bird songs. Cats do not have the brain circuitry for semantic networks (based on a language concepts) evolved yet. So called language areas are required. How this crap is even got through a peer review? Rithoric question, I know.
- robbedpeter 4y ago
  https://youtu.be/uFhBd5mMkU8 https://youtu.be/uFhBd5mMkU8 This is one of note thousands of videos of cats and dogs using buttons to talk. Cats, and all mammals, have a neocortex. Theirs is not as deeply layered or large as humans, but they most definitely have the ability to reason abstractly, are aware of themselves, think emotionally, and engage in complex, time aware planning over long periods. Your views are wrong. Language areas like Broca's region in the human brain are a consequence of physical distribution relative to the connectome and sensory endpoints. If you were to rewire the millions of connections to the lips, tongue, mouth, ears, and other body parts to be locations on the neocortex, broca's region would be somewhere different. You have about 1 square meter of neocortex responsible for all of your perception and cognition, and almost all of it is uniform. Neurons aren't differentiated by function, and animal experiments show that plasticity allows for arbitrary rewiring. The literature in the field shows that human cognition is likely superior to other species in the depth of cortical layering and size of the organ. It's likely the only reason elephants and whales or other animals with larger brains can't compete with humans is the mere absence of hands and vocal organs. Our range of colors and audible senses are important but lesser than many animals. Give an orca hands and human speech and there's nothing we know about neuroscience to imply that the animal wouldn't be smarter and more capable than humans. There's a lot of evidence that the killer whale would be more intelligent than humans in many ways. The cortical layering and columnar architecture of neuron clusters differs between species, and seems to dictate the cognitive depth of abstract reasoning. There may be different algorithmic constructions in neural connections that favor human level cognition. In principle, however, human brains aren't terribly different from many other large mammals, and elephants certainly display complex, emotional, symbolic, and abstract reasoning well within a range comparable to human experience. Your notion of animal cognition is unscientific and biased toward an assumption of human superiority that isn't grounded in fact. Neuroscience is slowly and tirelessly matching toward reverse engineering the brain. The more we learn, the more we find similarity in the basic functions of mammal brains, from mice to humans to blue whales.
News-Dog 4y ago
A friend of mine tooking in a cat that had been owned by a deaf family. This cat didn't make any noise (meow) at all, if she wanted to go out, etc., she would run between you legs, (yes, totally under-foot!) a major trip hazard. I taught her how to vocalize very quickly, which she understood we would hear, and would respond too.
- at_a_remove 4y ago
  Meowing is definitely a "please parent me" behavior. It took quite some time to domesticate two feral cats that were nearby -- many years. The meowing reflex was not present until much much later. One cat would open her mouth but forget to make the sound, but she eventually caught up to her brother, who would correct her by looking at her and meowing if she forgot.
  - t-3 4y ago
    It's possible she was making high-frequency noise beyond the detection range of the human ear. I've read that cats use these kinds of noises for calling their kittens.
- bitwize 4y ago
  Grown cats don't meow to each other. It's a noise they make to get our attention. Each cat must figure out, on their own, that meowing works to get humans' attention. A cat with deaf human parents would have never learned this, or would have learned that meowing doesn't work and to try something else.
  - AlotOfReading 4y ago
    Cats definitely meow to each other. For adults it's typically an aggressive warning, but it happens. It's also worth noting that kittens and their mothers communicate heavily via meows even when no humans are present. Food-begging is a pretty straightforward association from there.
    - 4y ago
Flankk 4y ago
Scent is the primary sensory input of a cat, not sight. They would be sniffing the screen and the experimenter's hands. I think this is the main reason cats fail the mirror test, not due to lack of intelligence. Cats eyes evolved for optimal visibility in the dark. To a cat, a backlit screen probably looks like sun baby.
- News-Dog 4y ago
  >Scent is the primary sensory input of a cat, not sight. Cat Senses : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses
herodotus 4y ago
I have tried to train my two cats with just these words: 1. "Let's go" - morning meal 2. "Upstairs" - I am going to bed 3. "Dinner" (plus clink bowls together) - evening meal 4. "Lie Down" and their names. Emerald, who prefers being upstairs, definitely responds to "Upstairs": she charges upstairs when I say it. Jade remains enigmatic and skeptical: that seems to be her nature. But if she is in the mood for a tummy rub, she will respond to "Lie Down". For me, the great charm of cats is that it is impossible to tell the difference between "No, I don't understand you." and "I understand you perfectly well, but I plan to ignore you completely until I feel like responding".
- toss1 4y ago
  Long and close observation of cats leads me to the inescapable conclusion that the latter is almost always the case. The number of times they understand some obscure thing exactly when I have no expectation that they'll get it at all, and their ability to selectively ignore the things I know they already understand, plus their ability to ask for complex things (where often I'm the dummy in the conversation) makes it a pretty inescapable conclusion. . .
  - nescioquid 4y ago
    > ...their ability to ask for complex things (where often I'm the dummy in the conversation)... I love the way you put that. Whenever my office door opens and the cat walks in, she's either there for a visit or to collect me, in which case she waits by the door to lead me to her dish, her toys, or whatever she has in mind. Beyond communicating with humans, cats are pretty good at training them, too.
    - Zancarius 4y ago
      > cats are pretty good at training them, too. Mum has a cat who has this particular (and peculiar) habit of drinking from the faucet whenever he's had treats. It's pretty hilarious how well he's trained the humans. Whenever he's had a treat, he'll walk toward the bathroom and flick his tail, ears turned back, expectantly waiting for someone to follow. If no one follows, he'll continue on his way and jump up on the counter top. If he still hasn't collected anyone's attention, he'll emit a distinctive (and very squeaky!) meow that he uses for no other purpose than "I want a drink" and will do so periodically until someone comes to turn the faucet on. Otherwise he'll lay there until he's noticed (if not, he'll give up and finally go to one of the water bowls). He's also finicky about the flow rate. If it's turned up too high (he prefers a gentle stream—almost a dribble) he'll stare at you until the flow rate is corrected. Talk about training his humans indeed!
canjobear 4y ago
The effect size is about what I’d expect from an experiment involving cats and attention.
idk1 4y ago
I have two cats, one is quite clever and responds to her name, dinner, hop up (for it's ok if you want to sit on my lap) and a few other things. I can ask her to get one of her toys too if she wants the play. She also very rarely meows. The other cat is not so bright, if you ever say anything to him directly he'll only meow back and come over for a pat, that's it. It's just a back and forth screaming match if you talk to him. The chopsyest cat I've ever met. Just shouts at everyone and everything without purpose. I think what I'm trying to say is, cats have a range of intelligence and some of them are quite good at learning names.
- zebraflask 4y ago
  Some are smarter than others, but I think, in terms of animal behavior or ecology, cats are basically carnivorous rabbits. That's not to say anyone who has had a trainable cat doesn't like them - mine have their moments - but I think it's worthwhile to consider that.
  - msrenee 4y ago
    In what way do you see a similarity to rabbits? I think of them as being pretty different, with cats being less social and more likely to take risks.
  - platz 4y ago
    rabbits are just prey animals and that shows in their behavior and attitude, whereas cats do a lot of predation themselves.
    - Sharlin 4y ago
      However, cats are far from the top of the food chain themselves, which is reflected in a lot of their behaviors.
      - jimmaswell 4y ago
        House cats and big cats don't behave very differently. https://lithub.com/house-cats-and-wild-cats-arent-actually-that-different/ https://lithub.com/house-cats-and-wild-cats-arent-actually-t...
rvieira 4y ago
Totally anecdotal evidence, but I have two cats and I give them "wet" food once a day. If one of them is far from the food bowls I say his name and he immediately comes running. If none is near me, both come running as soon as I call the first name (from different parts of the house). So, non-scientific, but I always assumed they could recognise each other's name.
smcl 4y ago
A weird amount of people I knew growing up named their cats just "cat" or "kitten". Every dog had a name (even in households that had a "cat" cat) but not all cats. I wonder if the cats figure their own names out in these cases :)
- praptak 4y ago
  It's acceptance of the fact that cats don't respond to commands.
- micromacrofoot 4y ago
  That's how I grew up. We always called them "cat" or "kitty" and would get more specific as needed and based on how we felt about them at the moment. Anything from "the cute black one" to "that orange fool." We were always told that no one really owns a cat, but we should take care of them all because it's good luck.
  - TheBigSalad 4y ago
    That's weird. I don't think I could live with an animal and not name it. But then again, I named my Roomba.
    - micromacrofoot 4y ago
      My neighbors' father would also think nothing of drowning unwanted kittens among other "old world" type of things that seem ghastly now.
      - smcl 4y ago
        Oof yeah that is something I only heard of as an adult - a friend's dad apparently did it a couple of times. Gruesome
        micromacrofoot 4y ago
        Probably says a lot about how much brutality we've engineered out of daily living. I recall having a visceral reaction to hearing about the kittens as a child, and I imagine it's fairly natural to feel that way. I'm glad I lived in a time and place where that kind of desensitization wasn't necessary.
t-3 4y ago
I have two cats, a young male (perhaps not coincidentally, a colony rescue?) and a very elderly female. When I let them outside, if I call them to come in, the younger will find the older and herd her to the door. He then vigorously resists coming inside himself. He's also very vocal, and his tone of voice will change depending on whether he's happy to see me and wanting pets or if I'm ruining his stalking and spying or he doesn't want to come inside (the other just ignores me and does whatever she wants).
- tarentel 4y ago
  My cat has at least 20 meows. I understand about 5 of them. Some of them are easy, like if she wants food or if she wants me to follow her for whatever reasons. Some of them I have no idea what she's going on about but I can tell it's different then her wanting to play or just wants to be pet.
  - hunterb123 4y ago
    For real. Off the top of my head there's, MeerrrOOOOOwww MerrrOOOOwww, the loudest one, huge inflection in the middle. Generally while strolling through the house, back and forth. I think that's the "I'm bored" one. But he'll also do it if I stay up. If someone is out of bed past curfew he'll do it. I have to close the bedroom door or he'll wake the wife. If you say summon him he'll probably ignore you but if he's interested he'll whimper errrderrruuderr softly while walking toward you. Then there's, MOWLLLLL MOWLLLLL, slowly howling, that sometimes means he's sick and gunna throw up. Usually right on both the rug and the carpet. Then there's, MAHHH MAHHH, just two in quick succession, which literally sounds like mama. That's the I want something one, generally he wants catnip from the outside plant. Just heard him go MOOOOW MUUUROWLLL MUUUROWLLL howling, but he's just pacing back and forth from the window and now wimpering at me. So I assume he's misses mama (the wife). The funniest is and most unique is, BRRRRAHDAHDOP, which he yells before tearing full speed through the house or down the hallway for seemingly no reason. I think that's either "Look at me" or he's so excited he can't contain himself and it slips out naturally. Side note: this was an interesting challenge creating and optimizing these onomatopoeias
salgernon 4y ago
There is a phone app, I think it was called “MeowTalk” that purported to machine learn cats vocalizations. With two of our younger (4yo sibling tabby) cats it seemed to “translate” their infrequent meows as “I love you” “I want to play”, so kind of, yea, probably, not impressive. But for our third cat, (an elderly female cross somewhere between Maine coon, silver tabby and sofa, a 22 pound ball of complaints) the app suggestions were often along the lines of “I don’t feel well”, “I’m in pain”. She does have arthritis (and is under vet care) so that response from the app was seemingly reasonable.
- Smoosh 4y ago
  "This leash demeans us both".
friendly_chap 4y ago
My girlfriend and I recently separated. She took one cat, and one stayed with me. During a discussion in her apartment she mentioned the cat that stayed with me by name. Her cat frantically started looking around the apartment to see if his old buddy is there. Such amazing creatures.
lobocinza 4y ago
There's a sound to which my two cats always promptly respond, the sound of me putting food on their bowls. And it doesn't matter how far they are, they hear and come in a hurry.
sunjester 4y ago
Are learning sounds the same as learning specific names?
BayAreaEscapee 4y ago
Apropos Far Side cartoon comparing what cats hear versus what dogs hear. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/36/fa/6d36fa7cc9d762952a62c7374095c685.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/36/fa/6d36fa7cc9d762952a62...
rossdavidh 4y ago
So, I totally believe some cats are intelligent enough to understand that a particular human vocalization is usually "aimed" at them. However...looking at the boxplots, the data is underwhelming. There is a huge overlap between the congruent and incongruent response times, even in household cats. If anything, this is evidence that fewer cats than expected notice the incongruence. The alternative explanation being, of course, that very few cats care. And, really, in these circumstances, why should they? But the boxplots demonstrate that the effect here is marginal.
Melatonic 4y ago
Unfortunately my cat thinks his name is "Cat" which leads to some obvious confusion :-D
jjmorrison 4y ago
I'm convinced my cat fully understands english, but is biding his time to murder me and take over.
pmarreck 4y ago
With cats you have to learn nonverbal communication. The slow blink while looking into their eyes means "it's cool, we're cool" I taught our cats to recognize a double-tap on the butt as "get up, I gotta get up" gotta read their body language... and yeah, sometimes it DOES say "I'm not currently interested, no offense"... but the thing to know is, they also read YOUR body language. They might not understand too many words, but intonation matters, posture matters, movement matters random cat trivia: They can't taste sweet tastes at all because a crucial gene for it got knocked out by a mutation a long time ago
zabzonk 4y ago
Cats understand doors (particulary fridge doors (with food inside), or doors where it will be nice and warm) and will often paw them. And will go mental when you come back go mental when you go out for a fish supper (this is in Scotland). Otherwise, they just look at you as if you have the IQ of a wombat.
jonahbenton 4y ago
Would be interested in studies- in cats and others- that attempt to differentiate the processing that occurs in response to human utterance, as "words" as we understand them are an abstraction that elide many subtle aspects of communication. Pitch, tone, vocalization duration and speed, mouth position, etc. So many signals there, some of which may be relevant for cats, some not. Am sure cats are able to distinguish bird types by their voices, and other prey as well, to a much more sophisticated degree than we (our ears) can. Calling those vocalizations "words" almost certainly wrong.
fleddr 4y ago
Our cat responds to Enya. When I'm working from my desk at home, she often crash lands in my lap and then rolls over, all four paws fully stretched as the ultimate invitation for a belly rub. This blocks my arms from doing work, but she doesn't care. Next, I turn on Enya, the exact same playlist every single time. The moment the music starts she starts cycling her front paws with her eyes closed, as if riding an invisible bicycle upside down. I need to fully enclose her with both arms to not drop her and I love the arrogance in making that my problem, not hers. I don't know why it's Enya. It could be that it was playing the first time this happened, creating a positive memory association. Or maybe she just likes the sounds. In any case, no paw cycling without Enya. When I pause the song she immediately stops, opens her eyes and stares at me in digust, which is cat for: put it back on, idiot.
ericlavigne 4y ago
With some assistance and teaching, cats and dogs are capable of learning to speak in sentences. In 2018, a speech pathologist named Christina Hunger, who used AAC devices to help special needs children learn to talk, tried applying a similar approach to her dog, Stella. It worked surprisingly well. Stella could speak in four-word sentences with a vocabulary of around 15 words by her first birthday, and was up to 49 words by her third birthday. Since then, many other people have followed the same process to teach their pets how to talk. https://www.hungerforwords.com/ https://www.hungerforwords.com/ https://fluent.pet/ https://fluent.pet/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8k2upr9vCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8k2upr9vCE
- Johnythree 4y ago
  And of course, "BilliSpeaks" https://www.youtube.com/c/BilliSpeaks/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/BilliSpeaks/videos
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anotherevan 4y ago
Small digression, but we recently got a dog. Acclimation with our two cats has been a long process. One cat is fine with him, the other spends most of his time in our daughter's room (which has a child-gate on the door to keep the dog out). The speed at which the dog figured out the cats names was incredible. You say the friendly cat's name and he would look up with mild interest. When he's fast asleep you could say the shy cat's name and he would bounce up going, "Where? Where? Where?"
sammalloy 4y ago
> However, it is still unclear how cats learned the name-face association. Further study should address this point. Will we ever know?
chapulin 4y ago
Animals are so smart. Has anyone seen brain scan studies to see what’s going on cognitively? Would be interesting to see what parts of the brain light up, plus if that’s different in house vs feral cats.
- throwanem 4y ago
  Good luck getting cats to put up with an fMRI! Closing a $100M seed round would be a piece of cake by comparison.
bravura 4y ago
The Naming of Cats T. S. Eliot - 1888-1965 The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, It isn’t just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES. First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily, Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo, or James, Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey— All of them sensible everyday names. There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter, Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames: Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter— But all of them sensible everyday names, But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular, A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified, Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular, Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride? Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum, Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat, Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum— Names that never belong to more than one cat. But above and beyond there’s still one name left over, And that is the name that you never will guess; The name that no human research can discover— But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess. When you notice a cat in profound meditation, The reason, I tell you, is always the same: His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name: His ineffable effable Effanineffable Deep and inscrutable singular name.
dmtroyer 4y ago
My partner is convinced that her cats understand hundreds of english words. Most of the time it seems harmless and I laugh. A small part of the time it drives me to madness.

386 points by michaelwm 4y ago

"Analysis: One cat completed only the first trial before escaping from the room and climbing out of reach." I quite enjoyed this bit.

zwieback 4y ago
That and the fact that the statistics don't seem very crisp says everything you need to know about cats. Anecdotally I can confirm that my cats know each others names, not sure if they would recognize on a monitor though.
- throwanem 4y ago
  Oh, I don't know. If wasps can recognize one another's faces - and they can! - I don't see any reason in principle why cats, who have orders of magnitude more neurons to work with, shouldn't be able to recognize images of one another.

sparsely 4y ago

Scanning the paper the effect seems surprisingly weak (and has p=0.045!) and weirdly dependent on family size (it looks as thought he difference only exists in larger families). While the results seem believable I'm not convinced by the results as presented.

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aasasd 4y ago

Okay, but: > The other 19 were household cats (mean number living together: 6.37) This means the number of cats, right? Since it's contrasted to the cafe cats. So these are basically three families with six or seven cats each. The question being: how was it easier to find three such families than a bunch of families with three cats? What kind of place is that? I mean, sure it's Japan but still.

WalterBright 4y ago

I found a book entitled "Electronics for Cats" stuffed under The Cat's bed. Should I be concerned?

throwanem 4y ago
Nah, not till you find your favorite iron there too. My guy never quite got the hang of the temperature control, always cooked the hell out of my tips. (That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it...) But I do have to give him that his joints were usually better than mine.

4oo4 4y ago

I can definitely attest to this, I have two brother cats, and usually calling one of their names gets the other's attention to, as if to say "oh I see how it is, you invite him and not me". I'm also really happy this is empirically validated, its's so easy to notice things like this and wonder if you're crazy.

dghughes 4y ago

My cat knows when I am talking "cat talk" to another cat. She lifts her head up as if to let me know she knows what's going on. I feed a wild cat I've called Dorian since he's grey, he's lost an eye so I may rename him Doran. My cat may know the name but she knows the tone of my voice for sure.

ogma 4y ago

eimrine 4y ago

What if I never call my cat by name but call it as ksksksksksks? Friend cat ought to understand who is called but seems that is more about my voice then about names.

purerandomness 4y ago
"Names" are just our arbitrary label for "a voice, forming a certain sound"

nerdjon 4y ago

I am both surprised and not surprised by this. It does kinda make sense, I have 2 cats (from the same litter and have been together their entire lives. 14 yo now). They each clearly respond to their name and not their brothers name. Or at least respond differently, but I have noticed they look up sometimes if I call one and not the other (but won't run up to me). I have long though it was them responding to the "pet voice" that we all seem to use. But if this was the case that explains it better.

phkahler 4y ago
My can knows the names of all family members and can sometimes respond appropriately to "where's mom, go find mom". This is of course only if she wants something and came to me for it.
- nerdjon 4y ago
  I have definitely noticed that. The cat I had growing up we had a close bond. He stayed with my parents though when I moved out. Any time I was coming to visit my parents would mention my name and he would perk up. I don't think it is tied to anything I gave him because I wasn't really taking care of him, I was rarely the one that fed him. He just slept on my bed and we spent a lot of time together. So there has to be some understanding there of... something. I am curious what they internalize it as. On the flip side I have to wonder. I live alone. My cats have very rarely actually heard my name. I would be very surprised if they had any concept of what my name was. But if they don't, do they think something different. It is interesting.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    I wonder if they pick it up by what draws your attention - so they may assume your name is texting sound or phone ring if that's all they ever see you react directly to.
    - nerdjon 4y ago
      huh I didn't think about that. I think we can fairly safely assume that them knowing their name is not an understanding of language and is just a recognition of a sound. At least based on any research that has been able to be done. So that would make sense in a way. And does lead to some... funny thoughts on what they may think my name is.

zdw 4y ago

I wonder if this is the first time a cat cafe has meaningfully contributed to scientific discourse.

CaptArmchair 4y ago
I'll one up you one. F.D.C Willard was an accomplished published physicist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Willard

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

Cats have friend cats? I'm surprised. This seems like the exception rather than the rule. Seems to me like most cats prefer a life without other cats around... with human caretakers and all the comforts they provide... kept all to themselves. In my almost-50 years I think I've only met "cats with cat friends" a handful of times. Even when we had a pair of sibling cats that "liked" each other, when one of them died the other actually seemed "happier" after, which is kind of sad and dark.

devmor 4y ago
In nature, cats form colonies where they take communal care of the young, old and infirm. One of the core behaviors of cats is hunting and providing for colony members who are too weak to do so. Cats being "solitary" animals is largely a misunderstanding of cat behavior towards humans due to cat affection being expressed differently than dog affection.
- nerdjon 4y ago
  I have had cats nearly my entire life. I love dogs but I am a cat person. All of the cats in my life have been loving social pets. I hate when the idea that cats can't bond, isn't loving, all of the stereotypes of cats are thrown around. Because they are just wrong. I do think a fair amount of it is not knowing how to properly socialize a kitten. But even a socialized cat will never be as affectionate as a dog. Or at least not the way a dog shows it. But I have 2 cats, they will sometimes sleep in different rooms and sometimes cuddle up basically on top of each other. They almost every night will sleep in my bed or at the very least will sleep on the cat tree next to me. I have noticed that when I have had to take one of my cats for an extended stay at the vet the other is noticeably... different. I don't want to assign an emotion since their emotions are different. But he is not himself. This often starts when I put one cat in a carrier. They seem to know when I am in a mood and really need that affection. But I also acknowledge that a cat isn't for everyone. Some people need that constant unquestionable affection that a dog gives you. Cats are more subtle.
  - cmrdporcupine 4y ago

lngnmn2 4y ago

No. They just associate repeated sounds, without any semantic whatsoever, just like bird songs. Cats do not have the brain circuitry for semantic networks (based on a language concepts) evolved yet. So called language areas are required. How this crap is even got through a peer review? Rithoric question, I know.

robbedpeter 4y ago
https://youtu.be/uFhBd5mMkU8 https://youtu.be/uFhBd5mMkU8 This is one of note thousands of videos of cats and dogs using buttons to talk. Cats, and all mammals, have a neocortex. Theirs is not as deeply layered or large as humans, but they most definitely have the ability to reason abstractly, are aware of themselves, think emotionally, and engage in complex, time aware planning over long periods. Your views are wrong. Language areas like Broca's region in the human brain are a consequence of physical distribution relative to the connectome and sensory endpoints. If you were to rewire the millions of connections to the lips, tongue, mouth, ears, and other body parts to be locations on the neocortex, broca's region would be somewhere different. You have about 1 square meter of neocortex responsible for all of your perception and cognition, and almost all of it is uniform. Neurons aren't differentiated by function, and animal experiments show that plasticity allows for arbitrary rewiring. The literature in the field shows that human cognition is likely superior to other species in the depth of cortical layering and size of the organ. It's likely the only reason elephants and whales or other animals with larger brains can't compete with humans is the mere absence of hands and vocal organs. Our range of colors and audible senses are important but lesser than many animals. Give an orca hands and human speech and there's nothing we know about neuroscience to imply that the animal wouldn't be smarter and more capable than humans. There's a lot of evidence that the killer whale would be more intelligent than humans in many ways. The cortical layering and columnar architecture of neuron clusters differs between species, and seems to dictate the cognitive depth of abstract reasoning. There may be different algorithmic constructions in neural connections that favor human level cognition. In principle, however, human brains aren't terribly different from many other large mammals, and elephants certainly display complex, emotional, symbolic, and abstract reasoning well within a range comparable to human experience. Your notion of animal cognition is unscientific and biased toward an assumption of human superiority that isn't grounded in fact. Neuroscience is slowly and tirelessly matching toward reverse engineering the brain. The more we learn, the more we find similarity in the basic functions of mammal brains, from mice to humans to blue whales.

News-Dog 4y ago

A friend of mine tooking in a cat that had been owned by a deaf family. This cat didn't make any noise (meow) at all, if she wanted to go out, etc., she would run between you legs, (yes, totally under-foot!) a major trip hazard. I taught her how to vocalize very quickly, which she understood we would hear, and would respond too.

at_a_remove 4y ago
Meowing is definitely a "please parent me" behavior. It took quite some time to domesticate two feral cats that were nearby -- many years. The meowing reflex was not present until much much later. One cat would open her mouth but forget to make the sound, but she eventually caught up to her brother, who would correct her by looking at her and meowing if she forgot.
- t-3 4y ago
  It's possible she was making high-frequency noise beyond the detection range of the human ear. I've read that cats use these kinds of noises for calling their kittens.
bitwize 4y ago
Grown cats don't meow to each other. It's a noise they make to get our attention. Each cat must figure out, on their own, that meowing works to get humans' attention. A cat with deaf human parents would have never learned this, or would have learned that meowing doesn't work and to try something else.
- AlotOfReading 4y ago
  Cats definitely meow to each other. For adults it's typically an aggressive warning, but it happens. It's also worth noting that kittens and their mothers communicate heavily via meows even when no humans are present. Food-begging is a pretty straightforward association from there.
  - 4y ago

Flankk 4y ago

Scent is the primary sensory input of a cat, not sight. They would be sniffing the screen and the experimenter's hands. I think this is the main reason cats fail the mirror test, not due to lack of intelligence. Cats eyes evolved for optimal visibility in the dark. To a cat, a backlit screen probably looks like sun baby.

News-Dog 4y ago
>Scent is the primary sensory input of a cat, not sight. Cat Senses : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses

herodotus 4y ago

I have tried to train my two cats with just these words: 1. "Let's go" - morning meal 2. "Upstairs" - I am going to bed 3. "Dinner" (plus clink bowls together) - evening meal 4. "Lie Down" and their names. Emerald, who prefers being upstairs, definitely responds to "Upstairs": she charges upstairs when I say it. Jade remains enigmatic and skeptical: that seems to be her nature. But if she is in the mood for a tummy rub, she will respond to "Lie Down". For me, the great charm of cats is that it is impossible to tell the difference between "No, I don't understand you." and "I understand you perfectly well, but I plan to ignore you completely until I feel like responding".

toss1 4y ago
Long and close observation of cats leads me to the inescapable conclusion that the latter is almost always the case. The number of times they understand some obscure thing exactly when I have no expectation that they'll get it at all, and their ability to selectively ignore the things I know they already understand, plus their ability to ask for complex things (where often I'm the dummy in the conversation) makes it a pretty inescapable conclusion. . .
- nescioquid 4y ago
  > ...their ability to ask for complex things (where often I'm the dummy in the conversation)... I love the way you put that. Whenever my office door opens and the cat walks in, she's either there for a visit or to collect me, in which case she waits by the door to lead me to her dish, her toys, or whatever she has in mind. Beyond communicating with humans, cats are pretty good at training them, too.
  - Zancarius 4y ago
    > cats are pretty good at training them, too. Mum has a cat who has this particular (and peculiar) habit of drinking from the faucet whenever he's had treats. It's pretty hilarious how well he's trained the humans. Whenever he's had a treat, he'll walk toward the bathroom and flick his tail, ears turned back, expectantly waiting for someone to follow. If no one follows, he'll continue on his way and jump up on the counter top. If he still hasn't collected anyone's attention, he'll emit a distinctive (and very squeaky!) meow that he uses for no other purpose than "I want a drink" and will do so periodically until someone comes to turn the faucet on. Otherwise he'll lay there until he's noticed (if not, he'll give up and finally go to one of the water bowls). He's also finicky about the flow rate. If it's turned up too high (he prefers a gentle stream—almost a dribble) he'll stare at you until the flow rate is corrected. Talk about training his humans indeed!

canjobear 4y ago

The effect size is about what I’d expect from an experiment involving cats and attention.

idk1 4y ago

I have two cats, one is quite clever and responds to her name, dinner, hop up (for it's ok if you want to sit on my lap) and a few other things. I can ask her to get one of her toys too if she wants the play. She also very rarely meows. The other cat is not so bright, if you ever say anything to him directly he'll only meow back and come over for a pat, that's it. It's just a back and forth screaming match if you talk to him. The chopsyest cat I've ever met. Just shouts at everyone and everything without purpose. I think what I'm trying to say is, cats have a range of intelligence and some of them are quite good at learning names.

zebraflask 4y ago
Some are smarter than others, but I think, in terms of animal behavior or ecology, cats are basically carnivorous rabbits. That's not to say anyone who has had a trainable cat doesn't like them - mine have their moments - but I think it's worthwhile to consider that.
- msrenee 4y ago
  In what way do you see a similarity to rabbits? I think of them as being pretty different, with cats being less social and more likely to take risks.
- platz 4y ago
  rabbits are just prey animals and that shows in their behavior and attitude, whereas cats do a lot of predation themselves.
  - Sharlin 4y ago
    However, cats are far from the top of the food chain themselves, which is reflected in a lot of their behaviors.
    - jimmaswell 4y ago
      House cats and big cats don't behave very differently. https://lithub.com/house-cats-and-wild-cats-arent-actually-that-different/ https://lithub.com/house-cats-and-wild-cats-arent-actually-t...

rvieira 4y ago

Totally anecdotal evidence, but I have two cats and I give them "wet" food once a day. If one of them is far from the food bowls I say his name and he immediately comes running. If none is near me, both come running as soon as I call the first name (from different parts of the house). So, non-scientific, but I always assumed they could recognise each other's name.

smcl 4y ago

A weird amount of people I knew growing up named their cats just "cat" or "kitten". Every dog had a name (even in households that had a "cat" cat) but not all cats. I wonder if the cats figure their own names out in these cases :)

praptak 4y ago
It's acceptance of the fact that cats don't respond to commands.
micromacrofoot 4y ago
That's how I grew up. We always called them "cat" or "kitty" and would get more specific as needed and based on how we felt about them at the moment. Anything from "the cute black one" to "that orange fool." We were always told that no one really owns a cat, but we should take care of them all because it's good luck.
- TheBigSalad 4y ago
  That's weird. I don't think I could live with an animal and not name it. But then again, I named my Roomba.
  - micromacrofoot 4y ago
    My neighbors' father would also think nothing of drowning unwanted kittens among other "old world" type of things that seem ghastly now.
    - smcl 4y ago
      Oof yeah that is something I only heard of as an adult - a friend's dad apparently did it a couple of times. Gruesome
      - micromacrofoot 4y ago
        Probably says a lot about how much brutality we've engineered out of daily living. I recall having a visceral reaction to hearing about the kittens as a child, and I imagine it's fairly natural to feel that way. I'm glad I lived in a time and place where that kind of desensitization wasn't necessary.

t-3 4y ago

I have two cats, a young male (perhaps not coincidentally, a colony rescue?) and a very elderly female. When I let them outside, if I call them to come in, the younger will find the older and herd her to the door. He then vigorously resists coming inside himself. He's also very vocal, and his tone of voice will change depending on whether he's happy to see me and wanting pets or if I'm ruining his stalking and spying or he doesn't want to come inside (the other just ignores me and does whatever she wants).

tarentel 4y ago
My cat has at least 20 meows. I understand about 5 of them. Some of them are easy, like if she wants food or if she wants me to follow her for whatever reasons. Some of them I have no idea what she's going on about but I can tell it's different then her wanting to play or just wants to be pet.
- hunterb123 4y ago
  For real. Off the top of my head there's, MeerrrOOOOOwww MerrrOOOOwww, the loudest one, huge inflection in the middle. Generally while strolling through the house, back and forth. I think that's the "I'm bored" one. But he'll also do it if I stay up. If someone is out of bed past curfew he'll do it. I have to close the bedroom door or he'll wake the wife. If you say summon him he'll probably ignore you but if he's interested he'll whimper errrderrruuderr softly while walking toward you. Then there's, MOWLLLLL MOWLLLLL, slowly howling, that sometimes means he's sick and gunna throw up. Usually right on both the rug and the carpet. Then there's, MAHHH MAHHH, just two in quick succession, which literally sounds like mama. That's the I want something one, generally he wants catnip from the outside plant. Just heard him go MOOOOW MUUUROWLLL MUUUROWLLL howling, but he's just pacing back and forth from the window and now wimpering at me. So I assume he's misses mama (the wife). The funniest is and most unique is, BRRRRAHDAHDOP, which he yells before tearing full speed through the house or down the hallway for seemingly no reason. I think that's either "Look at me" or he's so excited he can't contain himself and it slips out naturally. Side note: this was an interesting challenge creating and optimizing these onomatopoeias

salgernon 4y ago

There is a phone app, I think it was called “MeowTalk” that purported to machine learn cats vocalizations. With two of our younger (4yo sibling tabby) cats it seemed to “translate” their infrequent meows as “I love you” “I want to play”, so kind of, yea, probably, not impressive. But for our third cat, (an elderly female cross somewhere between Maine coon, silver tabby and sofa, a 22 pound ball of complaints) the app suggestions were often along the lines of “I don’t feel well”, “I’m in pain”. She does have arthritis (and is under vet care) so that response from the app was seemingly reasonable.

Smoosh 4y ago
"This leash demeans us both".

friendly_chap 4y ago

My girlfriend and I recently separated. She took one cat, and one stayed with me. During a discussion in her apartment she mentioned the cat that stayed with me by name. Her cat frantically started looking around the apartment to see if his old buddy is there. Such amazing creatures.

lobocinza 4y ago

There's a sound to which my two cats always promptly respond, the sound of me putting food on their bowls. And it doesn't matter how far they are, they hear and come in a hurry.

sunjester 4y ago

Are learning sounds the same as learning specific names?

BayAreaEscapee 4y ago

Apropos Far Side cartoon comparing what cats hear versus what dogs hear. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/36/fa/6d36fa7cc9d762952a62c7374095c685.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6d/36/fa/6d36fa7cc9d762952a62...

rossdavidh 4y ago

So, I totally believe some cats are intelligent enough to understand that a particular human vocalization is usually "aimed" at them. However...looking at the boxplots, the data is underwhelming. There is a huge overlap between the congruent and incongruent response times, even in household cats. If anything, this is evidence that fewer cats than expected notice the incongruence. The alternative explanation being, of course, that very few cats care. And, really, in these circumstances, why should they? But the boxplots demonstrate that the effect here is marginal.

Melatonic 4y ago

Unfortunately my cat thinks his name is "Cat" which leads to some obvious confusion :-D

jjmorrison 4y ago

I'm convinced my cat fully understands english, but is biding his time to murder me and take over.

pmarreck 4y ago

With cats you have to learn nonverbal communication. The slow blink while looking into their eyes means "it's cool, we're cool" I taught our cats to recognize a double-tap on the butt as "get up, I gotta get up" gotta read their body language... and yeah, sometimes it DOES say "I'm not currently interested, no offense"... but the thing to know is, they also read YOUR body language. They might not understand too many words, but intonation matters, posture matters, movement matters random cat trivia: They can't taste sweet tastes at all because a crucial gene for it got knocked out by a mutation a long time ago

zabzonk 4y ago

Cats understand doors (particulary fridge doors (with food inside), or doors where it will be nice and warm) and will often paw them. And will go mental when you come back go mental when you go out for a fish supper (this is in Scotland). Otherwise, they just look at you as if you have the IQ of a wombat.

jonahbenton 4y ago

Would be interested in studies- in cats and others- that attempt to differentiate the processing that occurs in response to human utterance, as "words" as we understand them are an abstraction that elide many subtle aspects of communication. Pitch, tone, vocalization duration and speed, mouth position, etc. So many signals there, some of which may be relevant for cats, some not. Am sure cats are able to distinguish bird types by their voices, and other prey as well, to a much more sophisticated degree than we (our ears) can. Calling those vocalizations "words" almost certainly wrong.

fleddr 4y ago

Our cat responds to Enya. When I'm working from my desk at home, she often crash lands in my lap and then rolls over, all four paws fully stretched as the ultimate invitation for a belly rub. This blocks my arms from doing work, but she doesn't care. Next, I turn on Enya, the exact same playlist every single time. The moment the music starts she starts cycling her front paws with her eyes closed, as if riding an invisible bicycle upside down. I need to fully enclose her with both arms to not drop her and I love the arrogance in making that my problem, not hers. I don't know why it's Enya. It could be that it was playing the first time this happened, creating a positive memory association. Or maybe she just likes the sounds. In any case, no paw cycling without Enya. When I pause the song she immediately stops, opens her eyes and stares at me in digust, which is cat for: put it back on, idiot.

ericlavigne 4y ago

With some assistance and teaching, cats and dogs are capable of learning to speak in sentences. In 2018, a speech pathologist named Christina Hunger, who used AAC devices to help special needs children learn to talk, tried applying a similar approach to her dog, Stella. It worked surprisingly well. Stella could speak in four-word sentences with a vocabulary of around 15 words by her first birthday, and was up to 49 words by her third birthday. Since then, many other people have followed the same process to teach their pets how to talk. https://www.hungerforwords.com/ https://www.hungerforwords.com/ https://fluent.pet/ https://fluent.pet/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8k2upr9vCE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8k2upr9vCE

Johnythree 4y ago
And of course, "BilliSpeaks" https://www.youtube.com/c/BilliSpeaks/videos https://www.youtube.com/c/BilliSpeaks/videos

deleted 4y ago

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anotherevan 4y ago

Small digression, but we recently got a dog. Acclimation with our two cats has been a long process. One cat is fine with him, the other spends most of his time in our daughter's room (which has a child-gate on the door to keep the dog out). The speed at which the dog figured out the cats names was incredible. You say the friendly cat's name and he would look up with mild interest. When he's fast asleep you could say the shy cat's name and he would bounce up going, "Where? Where? Where?"

sammalloy 4y ago

> However, it is still unclear how cats learned the name-face association. Further study should address this point. Will we ever know?

chapulin 4y ago

Animals are so smart. Has anyone seen brain scan studies to see what’s going on cognitively? Would be interesting to see what parts of the brain light up, plus if that’s different in house vs feral cats.

throwanem 4y ago
Good luck getting cats to put up with an fMRI! Closing a $100M seed round would be a piece of cake by comparison.

bravura 4y ago

The Naming of Cats T. S. Eliot - 1888-1965 The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, It isn’t just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES. First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily, Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo, or James, Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey— All of them sensible everyday names. There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter, Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames: Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter— But all of them sensible everyday names, But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular, A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified, Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular, Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride? Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum, Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat, Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum— Names that never belong to more than one cat. But above and beyond there’s still one name left over, And that is the name that you never will guess; The name that no human research can discover— But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess. When you notice a cat in profound meditation, The reason, I tell you, is always the same: His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name: His ineffable effable Effanineffable Deep and inscrutable singular name.

dmtroyer 4y ago

My partner is convinced that her cats understand hundreds of english words. Most of the time it seems harmless and I laugh. A small part of the time it drives me to madness.