5 ms·

How is this not common knowledge? Anyone who ever interacted with a cat knows they learn words. Cows, horses and other mammals do too.

by herval 2y ago

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> How is this not common knowledge? There is a lot of stupid common knowledge, from fan death to cold weather causing colds.
- herval 2y ago
  There’s also common knowledge that’s not wrong, like the fact that gravity exists and that cats learn their own names
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > the fact that gravity exists Gravity was famously misunderstood through various common knowledges for millennia. Birds, clouds and stars each confounded theories.
    - achierius 2y ago
      That's separate and somewhat irrelevant to the practical understanding that things do fall down to earth when dropped.
- moralestapia 2y ago
  >cold weather causing colds That's true, though.
  - vages 2y ago
    Please explain how
    - moralestapia 2y ago
      Cold weather creates the social and somatic conditions that increase the effective infectiousness of viruses.
    - waveBidder 2y ago
      Increased mucous production leading to higher transmissibility? more time spent indoors? drier air (that one was new to me) we don't actually know the mechanisms exactly, but there's some causal vector between cold weather and colds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold#weather https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold#weather
      - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
        Colds are more frequent in cold weather due to increased proximity and transmissibility. Bundling up better when outdoors won’t protect you against a cold.
        waveBidder 2y ago
        oh I forgot the old wives tale was literally direct exposure rather than the season
        JumpCrisscross 2y ago
        Yup! I really think my cat understands words. But he might be picking up on body language, or randomly iterating through a short list of behaviours until he gets a response. Human nature, closely studied, is unintuitive. I have to assume feline nature might be too.
Retr0id 2y ago
I grew up with cats and was entirely unaware that they had the capacity to learn names. Respond to words, sure, but it never seemed to matter what I was saying.
- FireBeyond 2y ago
  Cats May Recognize Their Own Name - It Doesn't Mean They Care: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cats-may-recognize-their-own-names-it-doesnt-mean-they-care-180971892/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cats-may-recognize...
  - Retr0id 2y ago
    That reminds me of a similar study I read about via the front page of HN, just recently
gerdesj 2y ago
I have been allowed to consider myself a colleague (at best, ordinarily: an associate) by many cats - you do not get to be an owner of a cat: that's an affectation! I have also loved and been loved by many dogs too. I am not a dog OR cat person - I am AND. When me and the wife met in 2003, she had two dogs and I had two cats. They all lived out their days together happily. I can't speak for horses and cows - limited personal exposure. I think that the relationship between humans and cats and dogs are rather different. I'm not too sure that cats really learn words in quite the same way that dogs do. Cats are far less "domesticated" than dogs. Apart from real killers, when was the last time that a dog delivered a disembowelled small mammal/bird/reptile to you and requested your approval? If you have a few 100 (or 1000) years to spend, why not start off with a population of lions (which do live in prides and are hence pack animals) and breed them down to domestic cat size and somehow domesticate them. Now compare them with dogs. I've never communicated with a cat using words - bloody daft! OK I do speak at them out of habit but I use high pitched sounds when "communicating" and never look them in the eye. I've rarely met a cat I could not convince to come on over and be stroked.
- nobody9999 2y ago
  >I have been allowed to consider myself a colleague (at best, ordinarily: an associate) by many cats - you do not get to be an owner of a cat: that's an affectation! As the old saw goes, "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff." And truer words were never spoken!
  - gerdesj 2y ago
    I love cats but they are fucking daft. It's time for us (you, actually) cat owners to rise up and reclaim (y)our world.
    - nobody9999 2y ago
      >It's time for us (you, actually) cat owners to rise up and reclaim (y)our world. I'll need to consult the boss and my employment contract, but I don't believe that's within my purview.

How is this not common knowledge? Anyone who ever interacted with a cat knows they learn words. Cows, horses and other mammals do too.

by herval 2y ago

How is this not common knowledge? Anyone who ever interacted with a cat knows they learn words. Cows, horses and other mammals do too.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> How is this not common knowledge? There is a lot of stupid common knowledge, from fan death to cold weather causing colds.

herval 2y ago
There’s also common knowledge that’s not wrong, like the fact that gravity exists and that cats learn their own names
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > the fact that gravity exists Gravity was famously misunderstood through various common knowledges for millennia. Birds, clouds and stars each confounded theories.
  - achierius 2y ago
    That's separate and somewhat irrelevant to the practical understanding that things do fall down to earth when dropped.
moralestapia 2y ago
>cold weather causing colds That's true, though.
- vages 2y ago
  Please explain how
  - moralestapia 2y ago
    Cold weather creates the social and somatic conditions that increase the effective infectiousness of viruses.
  - waveBidder 2y ago
    Increased mucous production leading to higher transmissibility? more time spent indoors? drier air (that one was new to me) we don't actually know the mechanisms exactly, but there's some causal vector between cold weather and colds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold#weather https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold#weather
    - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
      Colds are more frequent in cold weather due to increased proximity and transmissibility. Bundling up better when outdoors won’t protect you against a cold.
      - waveBidder 2y ago
        oh I forgot the old wives tale was literally direct exposure rather than the season
        JumpCrisscross 2y ago
        Yup! I really think my cat understands words. But he might be picking up on body language, or randomly iterating through a short list of behaviours until he gets a response. Human nature, closely studied, is unintuitive. I have to assume feline nature might be too.

Retr0id 2y ago

I grew up with cats and was entirely unaware that they had the capacity to learn names. Respond to words, sure, but it never seemed to matter what I was saying.

FireBeyond 2y ago
Cats May Recognize Their Own Name - It Doesn't Mean They Care: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cats-may-recognize-their-own-names-it-doesnt-mean-they-care-180971892/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cats-may-recognize...
- Retr0id 2y ago
  That reminds me of a similar study I read about via the front page of HN, just recently

gerdesj 2y ago

I have been allowed to consider myself a colleague (at best, ordinarily: an associate) by many cats - you do not get to be an owner of a cat: that's an affectation! I have also loved and been loved by many dogs too. I am not a dog OR cat person - I am AND. When me and the wife met in 2003, she had two dogs and I had two cats. They all lived out their days together happily. I can't speak for horses and cows - limited personal exposure. I think that the relationship between humans and cats and dogs are rather different. I'm not too sure that cats really learn words in quite the same way that dogs do. Cats are far less "domesticated" than dogs. Apart from real killers, when was the last time that a dog delivered a disembowelled small mammal/bird/reptile to you and requested your approval? If you have a few 100 (or 1000) years to spend, why not start off with a population of lions (which do live in prides and are hence pack animals) and breed them down to domestic cat size and somehow domesticate them. Now compare them with dogs. I've never communicated with a cat using words - bloody daft! OK I do speak at them out of habit but I use high pitched sounds when "communicating" and never look them in the eye. I've rarely met a cat I could not convince to come on over and be stroked.

nobody9999 2y ago
>I have been allowed to consider myself a colleague (at best, ordinarily: an associate) by many cats - you do not get to be an owner of a cat: that's an affectation! As the old saw goes, "Dogs have owners. Cats have staff." And truer words were never spoken!
- gerdesj 2y ago
  I love cats but they are fucking daft. It's time for us (you, actually) cat owners to rise up and reclaim (y)our world.
  - nobody9999 2y ago
    >It's time for us (you, actually) cat owners to rise up and reclaim (y)our world. I'll need to consult the boss and my employment contract, but I don't believe that's within my purview.