In a study of 78 kitties, researchers concluded that man’s feline friends can differentiate their names out of a series of random words. But it may just choose not to listen.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, called the findings “the first experimental evidence showing cats’ ability to understand human verbal utterances.”

The study’s lead author, Atsuko Saito, a cognitive biologist at the University of Tokyo, hypothesized that cats could understand some human communication, just like dogs. In a previous study, she found that cats can recognize their owners’ voices.

In a series of experiments, the researchers played a sequence of four neutral words, which were all similar in length and sound to the cat’s name and measured their reaction before finally calling the cat by name.

From the research, it was found that when the neutral words were played, the cats zoned out, but when their names were called, the cats perked back up usually with an ear twitch or a head turn.

Despite many of the cats’ reactions, this study does not prove that your cat understands the concept of a name, according to Mikel Delgado, who studies animal behavior at the University of California. Instead, it is being called as associative learning, which, as Delgado states, all animals are capable of.