this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] SwampYankee@mander.xyz 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I mean, I'm not sure cats are out there observing human babies and intentionally imitating them. They have pattern recognition machines in their heads just like we do. "Make noise = human pay attention" is about as complex as this gets. The fact that we're susceptible to the specific timbre of their voices seems likely to be evolutionary coincidence.

[–] jumperalex@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago

Yes and, you missed the last crucial step

“Make noise = human pay attention” "Human feeds and protects me = more kittens that probably know to pay attention" ... "Profit"

[–] Klear@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

It's likely not a coincidence but something they learnt a looong time ago living among humans.

Here's a study that goes into the frequency thing: