According to the study, the words recited were “nouns with the same length and accents as their own names.”

Researchers said that the cats, on average, began to lose interest as the list went on but perked up, moving their heads or tails, once they heard their own name — even when an unfamiliar person's voice said them. "From the results of all experiments, it thus appears that at least cats living in ordinary households can distinguish their own names from general words and names of other cats," the study read.