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Humans communicate with each other through language, which enables us talk about things beyond time and space. Do non-human animals learn to associate human speech with specific objects in everyday life? We examined whether cats matched familiar cats’ names and faces (Exp.1) and human family members’ names and faces (Exp.2). Cats were presented with a photo of the familiar cat’s face on a laptop monitor after hearing the same cat’s name or another cat’s name called by the subject cat’s owner (Exp.1) or an experimenter (Exp.2). Half of the trials were in a congruent condition where the name and face matched, and half were in an incongruent (mismatch) condition. Results of Exp.1 showed that household cats paid attention to the monitor for longer in the incongruent condition, suggesting an expectancy violation effect; however, café cats did not. In Exp.2, cats living in larger human families were found to look at the monitor for increasingly longer durations in the incongruent condition. Furthermore, this tendency was stronger among cats that had lived with their human family for a longer time, although we could not rule out an effect of age. This study provides evidence that cats link a companion's name and corresponding face without explicit training.
“ Ha ha ha, gumbo has taken the blame for what I, pissboi, have done to the huuman’s food cave.”
My partner recently said she wasn’t sure if the kitties knew their names (I realize this is slightly OT). I was able to dissuade her in about ten seconds. Kitties are smart.
Two of mine definitely know their names, because they come when called. But the third one… she’s now seven years old and I only conclusively determined that she knows her name a few months ago, after noticing that her ears twitch when I call her. Being the most stereotypical of my cats, however, the only sound that will actually summon her is the sound of a tin of tuna opening.
The ears are a good indicator. One of mine will thump her tail when I call her name. Whump, whump, whump. That’s if she doesn’t come running when I call. The other times, she’s happy to come over and get lots of love.
I know for a fact that one of my rabbits knows his name and that one of my other rabbits apparently thinks her name is “good girl”. I’ve tried to name train her but she doesn’t respond well to Clover. She might just respond more visibly to good girl because she gets good girled when she’s being such a good girl though. But I couldn’t find my Wally so I said his name a few times and he just came running over, and normally will turn one ear towards me if I say his name.
My cat, at 18, should definitely know his name but I’ll be damned if I know how to verify that he does. He’ll give me a death glare no matter what I say to him.
Edit: ok I just tested Clover and she turned her ear to me so apparently she goes by both Clover and good girl. I got the expected reaction from Wally, and the 3rd rabbit Beignet didn’t react, but he only reacts to treats anyways so I’m pretty sure he knows I’m talking to him and doesn’t care. He’s probably part cat.