"Does your cat know its name? Here’s how to find out"

With short video. My cats are/were pretty good at coming when called by their
name, even allowing for cat-itudes (pretend not to hear, then get up, for
example

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019...s-how-find-out

Give this a shot at home: Say four random words to your cat—separated by
about 15 seconds—with the same length and intonation as its name. Then say
its actual name. If it swivels its ears or perks up its head, chances are
it knows what you call it.

That’s essentially what researchers did in a new study. Japanese
scientists played recordings of a cat’s owner saying four words with
lengths and accents similar to its name before saying the feline’s actual
name. The word hihu (Japanese for “skin�), for example, might precede the
name “Kari.� As the random words—all nouns—played, the cats became less
and less interested. But as soon as they heard their name, most moved
their ears and heads; a few even got up (above). The scientists saw
similar responses when the cat’s name came after the names of other
felines he lived with, or when a stranger spoke the words.

Cats may recognize their names because it’s the word humans say most
frequently to them, or because it’s often associated with something
positive, like petting or food, the researchers say. Indeed, the only cats
that had trouble with the task were those that lived in a cat café, a shop
that can house dozens of cats that customers pay to hang out with. These
felines could distinguish their name from random nouns, but not from the
names of the cats they shared the café with. Perhaps that’s because
visitors call the names of many cats, but only “reward� a few with pets or
treats, the scientists speculate.

The findings are the first to experimentally show that cats have some
understanding of what we are saying to them, the team concludes today in
Scientific Reports. Trained cats may understand words like “sit� or
“jump,� but it could be because humans are using additional cues, such as
hand gestures. The new findings could improve our relationships with our
pets, the researchers say; cooing your cat’s name during a stressful vet
visit, for example, might help reassure it. Still, whether cats understand
that their name is really their name remains unclear. They may just think
it’s another word for “treat.�


Actual paper is here (public!)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40616-4