Discrimination of cat-directed speech from human-directed speech

De Mouzon and colleagues investigated whether cats respond differently to the special register people use when talking to them, analogous to infant-directed speech. Cats were played recordings of their owner or a stranger using either cat-directed or adult-directed speech, and their attentive behaviour was measured. Cats reacted more strongly to cat-directed speech, but crucially only when it came from their own owner, not from a stranger, indicating that cats form an individualized communicative relationship with their caregiver rather than responding to the speech style alone. The findings suggest cat-human communication depends on the specific bond and learned familiarity between a cat and its person, adding to evidence that cats attend selectively to their owners and that the high-pitched, exaggerated way owners address cats is meaningful to them.