01/10/2025
Cats possess impressive cognitive abilities, such as following human pointing, recognizing their own name, and even identifying familiar cats and people.
Researchers sought to investigate whether cats might be "hard-wired" to learn human language. To explore this, they designed an experiment inspired by previous research on 14-month-old babies, who showed signs of associating words with objects after only 16 to 20 repetitions.
The team tested 31 adult pet cats by presenting them with two short cartoon animations on a laptop screen, each paired with a made-up word spoken by the cat's owner. For instance, the animation of a unicorn-like creature was paired with the word "keraru," while the animation of an expanding and shrinking red-faced sun was paired with the word "parumo."
Remarkably, the cats showed signs of associating the words with the corresponding images after just two 9-second exposures. This rapid learning was evident when the researchers switched the audio pairings in a subsequent round. The cats displayed perplexity, spending an average of 33% more time looking at the screen when the image and audio didn't match.
Some cats even exhibited dilated pupils, further suggesting surprise or confusion. These results strongly indicate that cats can quickly form picture-word associations, possibly even faster than human babies. Researchers suggest that cats may be paying closer attention to our everyday conversations than we realize, actively trying to understand the world we share with them.
Learn more: https://www.science.org/content/article/cats-beat-babies-word-association-game
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