Amazing stuff!
"In the age-old debate of cats versus dogs, cats just scored a point. Housecats, it turns out, can quickly learn to associate words and pictures, similar to the way human babies and other animals, including dogs, can. The findings appear in a recent study published in Scientific Reports. What this means for cats' grasp of language remains a matter of some debate, however. ..."
From the abstract:
"It is well known that dogs are capable of following human verbal instructions. However, very little is known about the equivalent ability in cats. In this study, we used a switched stimuli task to examine whether cats rapidly form picture-word association, which is a fundamental ability for word learning. We presented cats with two meaningless picture-word combinations, in the habituation phase. Then, on half of the trials we switched the combination (switched condition), but the other half of the trials remained as before (non-switched condition). If cats rapidly form picture-word association, they were expected to look at the monitor for longer in the switched condition, reflecting detection of the change. We used human speech as stimuli in Exp.1, and mechanical sounds (electronic sounds) in Exp.2. Cats expressed detection of the switched combination in Exp.1, where human speech and objects were paired. However, in Exp.2 where non-social sounds and objects were paired, there was no statistical difference between switched and non-switched conditions, although there was a main effect of condition when the data from the two experiments were pooled. These results demonstrate that cats can rapidly form picture-word association. Further research should investigate whether domestication has played a role in this ability."
Rapid formation of picture-word association in cats (open access)
A cat intently watches a monitor during a switch trial in which researchers presented a combination of auditory and visual stimuli that differs from its training.
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