Cats are able to recognise their own names much like their canine counterparts, a study has suggested.

Much is known about the ability of dogs to communicate with humans, but researchers in Japan decided to investigate how well domestic cats could discriminate between different human words.

The experiment involved measuring whether the cats reacted to their names when they were spoken among a string of other random nouns.

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The same test was then carried out with the words being spoken by a stranger, rather than by the cats' owners.

Scientists discovered that the pets showed responses that would indicate recognition, such as pricking up their ears or moving their heads, although rarely showed any more excitement, such as moving their tails or making noise.

The experts said it was "reasonable" to believe cats would react to their own names as they might associate it with rewards, such as food or play, or with "punishments", such as having a bath or going to the vets.

Unlike in experiments with dogs, the team chose not to ask cats’ to retrieve named objects they had previously been shown.

The authors said: “the training of cats to perform on command would require a lot of effort and time.”

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Atsuko Saito, from Sophia University in Tokyo, said the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, said it was not clear the cats realised their name was a name, however.

She said: “There is no evidence that cats have the ability to recognise themselves. So I think they just associated words – here, names – with rewards or punishment.”

She added that perhaps it would be possible to train cats to recognise specific words, for example to help them avoid dangerous objects.

She said: "This work has shed new light on the ability of cats to communicate with humans; further clarifying cats' abilities with respect to cat-human communication will potentially enhance the welfare of both humans and cats."

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As for why cats don’t always come when called, Saito says they are just ignoring you.

“Cats are not evolved to respond to human cues,” says Saito. “They will communicate with humans when they want. That is the cat.”