Cats learn what words mean

Are you convinced that your cat knows what “dinner” means? You could be right. According to a new study, cats learn what words mean much quicker than human babies. Scientists from Abazu University in Japan studied 31 cats with a method that was used in the 1990s to test how babies develop language skills. Each cat was shown two animations on a laptop, with a recording of its owner’s voice saying a made-up word. One showed a creature and the word “keraru”, the other was the Sun and the word “parumo”. After a break, the cats watched again but this time the words were swapped in half of the videos – it was “keraru” for the Sun and “parumo” for the creature. Scientists noticed that, when watching these, the cats…

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The Week Junior (UK) (Digital) - 1 Issue, 464

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