Cats perform better than toddlers on a simple measure of language comprehension. The research, published Oct. 4 in the journal Scientific Reports, revealed that cats form associations between pictures and words around four times faster than human toddlers do.
Language is the most important tool humans use to communicate. But the ability to comprehend speech is not unique to Homo sapiens. Some apes associate spoken words with written symbols or pictures, while African gray parrots can understand and respond to spoken instructions. Dogs, meanwhile, have been trained to understand and respond to simple vocabulary.
