Cats Are Only Interested in You If You're Talking to Them Directly

Cat owners have long suspected that their feline friends can recognize and understand them. Now, they have scientific proof.

A study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, has demonstrated how cats change their behavior when they hear their owner's voice in a tone directed to them, but not when their owner is talking to other people.

This difference is only apparent when the cats are spoken to by their owners and not when they are approached by strangers, suggesting that cats recognize and respond to the sound of their owner's voice, but that they are only interested in them when they are being spoken to directly.

"I think it's safe to say cats understand human speech, not only by what outcome that speech portrays [but also] the familiarity of certain tones and what the outcome of those are too," feline behaviorist and author of Let's Talk About Cats, Anita Kelsey, told Newsweek.

"In my opinion, [they are] not so much understanding the words and their meaning in the human sense, but understanding through association of what happens from that word."

In the latest research, 16 cats were played recordings of their owners and the voices of strangers, speaking both to them and to other humans. Changes in behavior, such as ear movements, pupil dilation and tail movement, were then monitored by the scientists.

In the first experiment, the cats were played a stranger's voice calling their name, followed by that of their owner. In the second, the cats were played their owner's voice, first directed at them and then directed at another human. In both cases, the cats' behavior intensified when their owner directed their speech towards them. This difference wasn't observed when they were spoken to by a stranger.

Although the sample size used in this study was small, the data adds further evidence to the theory that cats are able to form strong bonds with their owners.

The study's lead author, Charlotte de Mouzon, said that this was more than just a survival instinct.

"The fact that they react to the particular way we talk to them, and not just regarding food, implies that we are more than just food providers. In their everyday life, we are a central part of their social environment," she told Newsweek.

Cats are often perceived as anti-social animals, but Kelsey says that this assumption is unfounded: "I think this stereotype comes from the fact we are a species with a special affiliation to dogs, and dogs are people pleasers. As cats are not people pleasers, they have been stamped with being anti-social pets.

"Cats do in fact show us a whole plethora of affection in a different way and do have strong bonds with their guardians."

Despite this ability to form strong bonds with people, many cat owners are still at a loss as to what their pets are actually trying to say to them. But thanks to machine learning, we might soon be able to decipher their declarations.

In 2019, a study, published by Stavros Ntalampiras from the University of Milan in Italy, demonstrated how algorithms could be used to distinguish between the meows of cats in different contexts. This research caught the interest of a team of app developers at the software engineering group Akvelon.

"We enlisted Dr. Ntalampiras after the study appeared and worked together to create Meowtalk," Oleg Rezhko, CTO and co-founder of the app Meowtalk, told Newsweek.

Meowtalk uses AI and machine learning to decode the animals' misunderstood "meowsic". The app instantaneously translates cat "speech" into one of 12 general intents—like hunger, anger or contentment—and can even be programmed to learn specific phrases.

"We published a paper in 2021, reporting the software could distinguish among nine intents—'states of mind' of a cat—with 90 percent accuracy overall," Rezhko said. "However, the model recognizes some intents better than others…the average accuracy overall across all 12 intents stays about 70 percent."

Despite mixed reviews, the app has been downloaded more than 17 million times. It's available in 14 different languages and, since its launch in 2020, over 250 million meows have already been recorded. The eventual aim is to develop a smart collar that would translate your cat's meow instantly.

"Cats have a wide range of how they communicate with us and other cats, through body language, scent, and vocalizations," Kelsey said. "Only through understanding these complex pets and how they communicate can we begin to understand and help them with any issues they may display in a home or rescue setting."

For de Mouzon, developing this understanding is essential to animal welfare.

"Many humans consider their non-human companions as family members, and sometimes even as their children," she said. "In order to apprehend the mechanisms of such modern inter-specific relationships, research in the field must follow that trend.

"Understanding interactions between humans and their non-human companions is a key component in favoring animal welfare."

Update 10/26/22 03:20 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comments from Charlotte de Mouzon and Oleg Rezhko.