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A small team of zoologists from Azabu University, Japan, has discovered through experimentation that common domestic cats are able to associate human words with pictures without prompting or reward. In their study, published in the journal Scientific reportsThe group tested volunteer cats looking at images on a computer screen to see if they formed associations between the images and spoken words.
Previous research has shown that cats know when a human says their name: they react differently than when they hear other words.
Other experiments have shown that they are able to match photos of people they know to their names. In this new effort, researchers found that cats may be able to understand many words spoken to them.
To find out if cats have the ability to match a word to an object, the research team called on 31 volunteer adult domestic cats. Each was given a word test originally designed to learn about word association in growing human infants. This involves showing short animations.
While the image is displayed, a nonsense word is played. Each cat saw two of these animations: one was accompanied by the word “keraru”, the other “parumo”. The videos played on a loop until the cats looked away.
Schematic diagram of the experiment. Credit: Scientific reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-74006-2
After giving each cat a break, each was placed in front of the computer screen again and the same two animations played on a loop. But this time, the words spoken were reversed.
While the cats watched the videos, the researchers observed them.
They found that they looked longer when hearing the word than during the original broadcast – some even showed pupil dilation. Both were signs that the cats were confused by the change and were intently searching for an explanation, evidence that they had associated the words with the images on the computer screen, even in the absence of reward.
This finding, the team suggests, indicates that it is likely that cats generally associate the words they hear from humans with objects in their environment.
More information:
Saho Takagi et al, Rapid formation of picture-word associations in cats, Scientific reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-74006-2
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