介绍： This is Scientific American 60-second Science, I'm Jim Daley.
Almost any cat owner will testify to the felines' apparent indifference to humans when we call their names.
But according to a recent study, cats do recognize their names―or at least that we are indeed addressing them.
It's just that they still ma...

介绍： This is Scientific American 60-second Science, I'm Jim Daley.
Almost any cat owner will testify to the felines' apparent indifference to humans when we call their names.
But according to a recent study, cats do recognize their names―or at least that we are indeed addressing them.
It's just that they still may not respond.
"I think cats associate sounds of their names with some rewards or punishments."
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 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.

这里是科学美国人――60秒科学系列，我是吉姆・戴利。
几乎所有猫主人都会证实，当我们叫猫咪的名字时，它们明显会无视我们。
但根据最近的一项研究，猫确实能辨认自己的名字――或者至少认出我们确实在叫它们。
只不过它们依旧不会回应而已。
“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齐藤广子说到。
齐藤之前已经证明猫能识别主人的声音。
在这项新研究中，她和同事调查了猫听到人类叫它们名字时的反应。
这项研究调查的78只猫来自日本家庭和“猫咪咖啡馆”――这是顾客可以与猫咪进行互动的咖啡馆。
齐藤和同事让猫主人说四个与猫的名字发音相似的词，
直到猫习惯这些词后不再做出反应。
接下来，猫主人说出猫的真正名字。