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Comment on Meow

The resemblance to baby vocalizations can be rather unsettling with some cats. I suppose it’s somewhat natural since they’re about the same size as a newborn human, but specifically adopting somewhat human-like (and thus baby-like, because that’s the one they can imitate the best) vocalization doesn’t seem that far-fetched.

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SwampYankee@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
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.

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- jumperalex@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ 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”
  
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- Klear@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ 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:
  
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