• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Your Cat Knows You’re Talking To It, But Just Doesn’t Care

October 25, 2022 by Deborah Bloomfield

Cats may be the masters of indifference, but new research suggests that they are in fact fully aware when they are being directly addressed by their human. The fact the aloof floofs don’t always react may reflect a personal choice to ignore us rather than an inability to recognize that they are being spoken to.

“Cats – who were not so long ago considered as independent and ungrateful creatures – are in fact very well capable of creating and fostering attachment bonds with humans,” write the study authors. Indeed, recent research has shown that pet cats often prefer cuddles with their owner to food, while other studies have revealed that the seemingly indifferent fuzzies miss their owners when separated for long periods.

Advertisement

Building on these findings, the new study provides evidence that cats alter their behavior when they hear their owner’s voice directed to them, but not when they hear the voice of a stranger or that of their owner speaking to another person. 

To conduct their research, the study authors recruited 16 housecats, all of whom were owned by French veterinary students. When the cats heard a recording of their owner calling their name, the majority displayed an increase in engagement by turning their ears towards the speakers, moving around with greater intensity, or exhibiting dilated pupils.

In contrast, the cats generally decreased their behavior intensity when they heard the voice of a stranger calling their name.

Advertisement

The researchers then played recordings of the animals’ owners saying things like “tu veux jouer?” (French for “do you want to play?”) and “tu veux manger?” (“do you want to eat?”), first in a tone they would normally use when addressing their cat, and then in a tone they would use when talking to a human. 

The felines only reacted when they heard the “cat-directed speech (CDS)” suggesting that they are able to distinguish between phrases uttered for their benefit and those that are intended for someone else’s ears.



A cat reacts to the voice of its owner, masked by the sound of a 300 Hertz tone.

Advertisement

When listening to the same sentences spoken by a stranger, the animals remained uninterested regardless of the tone used. The authors conclude that “cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans, when sentences are uttered by their owners.”

Contrarily, previous research has indicated that dogs respond to “dog-directed speech (DDS)” even when spoken by a stranger. That cats appear unable to identify CDS spoken by an unfamiliar human may reflect their reluctance to engage with strangers, but could also be a result of their lack of experience with people other than their owner. 

“Our results highlight the importance of one-to-one relationships for indoor companion cats, who do not seem to generalize the communication developed with one human to all human interlocutors,” write the study authors. Whether outdoor cats – who may have more interactions with unfamiliar people – are more attuned to the voices of strangers is something that will need to be addressed in future studies.

Advertisement

Interestingly, the researchers point out that pet cats often modify their own vocalizations when addressing their owners, and tend to purr in a higher pitch than feral cats. It has been suggested that this intonation tugs a little harder on human heartstrings and prompts more sympathetic reactions from owners.

“The fact that, in return, cats show a greater reaction when their humans specifically address them, brings a new dimension to previous considerations of this reciprocal relationship,” write the authors.

The study has been published in the journal Animal Cognition.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Exclusive-Ryanair ready to wait years for Boeing to cut prices, says O’Leary
  2. Spanish housing stock drops after lockdown-driven buying spree
  3. Hungarian cenbank slows pace of tightening, plans more hikes to curb inflation
  4. Venezuela to reopen border with Colombia on Tuesday, official says

Source Link: Your Cat Knows You’re Talking To It, But Just Doesn’t Care

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • A Spinning Island Lake In Argentina Looms Out Of The Swamps Like An Eyeball
  • Mammals Have Evolved Into Ant Eaters 12 Times Since The Dinosaurs Went Extinct
  • Thieving Pulsar Spinning 592 Times A Second Reveals New Understanding Of Where Its X-Rays Come From
  • The Rise And Fall (And Lamentable Rise) Of The “Alpha Male” Myth
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: How Do Black Holes Shape The Universe?
  • North America’s Smallest Turtle Is The Cutest Thing You’ll Find In A Bog
  • “Unambiguous Signal” To Curb Emissions Now: Long-Lost Aerial Photos Reveal Evolution Of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse
  • 8 Children Have Been Born With 3 Biological Parents Each After Mitochondrial Transfer
  • First Known Observations Of Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry In Special Particle Decay
  • In 1973, NASA Sent Two Spiders Into Space To See If They Can Spin Webs – And They Learnt A Lot
  • Meet The Many Species Of Freaky Looking “Assassin Spiders” That Only Eat Other Spiders
  • Your Dog’s TV Preferences Might Reveal Their Personality
  • Some Human Gut Bacteria Can Absorb Harmful Toxic “Forever Chemicals” So They Can Be Pooped Out
  • You Could Float Through 10 Countries Before The World’s Most International River Spat You Out
  • Enormous Coronal Hole And Beast-Like Crawling Prominences Dazzle On The Active Sun
  • Dramatic Drone Footage Of Iceland’s Latest Volcanic Eruption Shows An Epic Scene From Hell
  • A Shrimp That Lives In A Tree? Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains Are Home To Some Seriously Strange Wildlife
  • Is NASA’s Claim That Saturn Could Float On Water Really True?
  • Pangea Proxima: This Is What Planet Earth May Look Like 250 Million Years In The Future
  • The Story Of Dogxim, The Fox-Dog Hybrid That Shouldn’t Have Existed
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version