Almost any cat owner will testify to the felines apparent indifference to humans when we call their names. But according to a new study， cats do recognize their names—or at least that we are indeed addressing them. Its just that they still may not respond.

“I think cats associate sounds of their names with some rewards or punishments，” said Atsuko Saito， a behavioral scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Saito previously demonstrated that cats recognize their owners voices. In the new work， she and her colleagues investigated the reactions of cats to hearing humans say their names. The study included 78 cats from Japanese households and from a “cat café”， a business where patrons can interact with felines.

Saito and her colleagues had owners say four words that sounded similar to their cats names until the animals habituated to those words and stopped responding. Next， the owners said the felines actual names. And indeed， the cats had more pronounced responses—moving their ears， heads， tails or meowing—than they did to similar words or to other cats names. The study is in the journal Scientific Reports.

The researchers also had people unfamiliar to the cats speak the names. Although the felines responses were less prominent than when their owners called them， they still appeared to recognize the words when spoken by strangers. But does that mean the cats know they are being called by name？

“There is no evidence that cats have the ability to recognize themselves， like us. So the recognition about their names is different from ours.” But Saito says she thinks we might be able to teach cats to recognize other words in addition to their names. “My colleagues are investigating whether cats recognize other cohabiting cats names.”

Could this knowledge mean that humans could eventually train cats to respond to voice commands， the way dogs do？

几乎所有的猫主人都会证明，当我们叫猫的名字时，它们明显会无视我们。但是，根据一项新的研究，猫确实能辨认出自己的名字——或者至少知道我们确实在叫它，只不过它们可能不会回应而已。

“我认为猫将其名字的发音和一些奖励或惩罚联系在一起。”东京上智大学的行为科学家Atsuko Saito说。

Saito之前的研究证明过猫能辨认出其主人的声音。在这项新研究中，她和她的同事调查了猫听到人类叫它们的名字时的反应。该研究调查了78只來自日本住户和“猫咖啡馆”的猫（“猫咖啡馆”是一家顾客可与猫互动的店铺）。

Saito和她的同事让猫的主人说四个与猫的名字发音相似的词，直到猫习惯了这些词，不再做出反应。接下来，猫的主人说出猫真正的名字。事实上，比起听到与它们的名字发音相似的词或其他猫的名字，猫对听到它们的名字时做出的反应更明显——它们会晃动耳朵、头、尾巴，或者发出叫声。这项研究发表在《科学报告》杂志上。

研究人员还让与这些猫不熟的人叫猫的名字。尽管猫的反应不如听到主人叫它们的名字时那么明显，但它们似乎还是能辨认出陌生人说的名字。不过，这是否意味着猫知道别人在叫它的名字？

“至今还没有证据证明猫像人类一样有认识自己的能力。因此，它们对其名字的认知与我们人类不同。”但Saito说，她认为我们或许能教猫认识除其名字以外的词语。“我的同事正在调查猫是否能辨认出与其共处一室的其他猫的名字。”

这一研究是否意味着人类最终能训练猫，让它像狗一样对声音指令做出反应呢？

feline /'fi?la?n/ n. 猫科动物

indifference /?n'd?fr?ns/ n. 冷淡;无动于衷

address /?'dres/ v. 称呼（某人）;冠以（某种称呼）

She addressed my father as “Mr Stevens”.

investigate /?n'vest?ɡe?t/ v. 研究;调查

patron /'pe?tr?n/ n. 顾客;常客

evidence /'ev?d?ns/ n. 证明;证据

in addition to除……以外（还）

In addition to English， he has to study a

second foreign language.