Cats may change their behavior when they hear their owner's voice talking in a tone directed to them, but not when their owner's voice is directed at someone else. Evidence that cats may form strong bonds with their owners can be found in the study of 16 cats.
When talking to infants and dogs, the human tone is different. The tone of human speech has been shown to change when directed at cats, but less is known about how cats respond to this.
16 cats reacted to their owner's and a stranger's pre-recorded voices when they said phrases in cat-directed and human adult- directed tones.
The first condition changed the voice of the speaker from a stranger's voice to the cat's owner. The second and third conditions made the tone used for the cat's owner or a stranger different. The behavior intensity of cats reacting to the audio was recorded and rated by the authors.
In the first condition, 10 out of the 16 cats showed a decrease in behavior intensity as they heard three audio clips of a stranger's voice. When their owner's voice is heard, their behavior intensity increases again. The cats exhibited behaviors such as turning their ears to the speakers and moving around the room. Cats could discriminate their owner's voice from that of a stranger, according to the authors.
In the second condition, 10 cats decreased their behavior as they heard audio from their owner, but increased their behavior when they heard the cat's voice. There was no change in behavior intensity when a stranger was speaking in an adult tone.
The cats can distinguish when their owner is talking in a cat-directed tone compared to an adult- directed tone, but did not react differently when a stranger changed tone.
The small sample size used in this study may not represent all cat behavior, but the authors propose that future research could investigate whether their findings can be duplicated in more socialized cats that are used to interacting with strangers.
According to the authors, their findings bring a new aspect to cat-human relationships, with cat communication possibly relying on experience of the speaker's voice. One-to-one relationships are important for cats and humans.
More information: Charlotte de Mouzon, Discrimination of cat‑directed speech from human‑directed speech in a population of indoor companion cats (Felis catus), Animal Cognition (2022). DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01674-w. link.springer.com/article/10.1 … 7/s10071-022-01674-w Journal information: Animal Cognition
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