Cats may seem indifferent to everything we do, but in reality they are closely watching our every move. Studies have shown that they are able to understand our speech and even surpass infants in the ability to associate words with images.
Scientists from Japan's Azabu University, led by Saho Takagi, conducted a series experiments with 31 adult cats, during which they found that cats can understand which word corresponds to which picture. The results of this study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Each cat was placed in front of a laptop screen that played two videos with different images. When each image appeared, a specific word was sounded, which the researchers came up with specifically for this experiment. The cats watched each video eight times, followed by a short break.
They then watched the video again, but some of the pictures were accompanied by the wrong words. It has been observed that when cats hear an incorrect word, they become confused looked at the screen, and a third longer than usual. According to the researchers, this indicates that cats are already when watching the video for the first time, they knew which word corresponded to each picture. That's why they were so confused when they heard the wrong word for the picture.
Long before this, scientists conducted a similar experiment with infants who were just beginning to learn the language of their parents. It turned out that in order to learn the correct word for each picture, they had to watch the videos 16-20 times.
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